S03.E06: Health Fund

[fishcakes]

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As Mateo turns to stranger and stranger home remedies for an ear infection, Amy and Jonah decide to offer an alternative to Cloud 9's terrible health insurance plan. Meanwhile, Glenn enlists Dina to help him get medical attention for his own embarrassing condition.

[rollacoaster]

"Glenn's penis......"

[SayMyName]

That was one of the funniest episodes yet. The pharmacist needs to get more screen time. His scenes were great.

I also liked the guy putting his business card in the Mateo project jar.

[Commando Cody]

I thought when they started the health fund, they were just going to use it for minor problems like Mateo's ear infection. 

Amy is getting less likable every week. I don't know if they're purposely making her that way because of the divorce or if the writers are just crapping all over her character. 

[iMonrey]

This season has been somewhat lackluster up 'til now but this episode was great. The entire bit with Glenn behind the sheet and the pixelated penis was hysterical. The whole healthcare thing was hilarious too. I noticed one of the plan levels in their final draft was "Targaryen."  

Quote

Amy is getting less likable every week. I don't know if they're purposely making her that way because of the divorce or if the writers are just crapping all over her character.

I've seen this comment before and I don't understand where that perception is coming from. I went back and watched the pilot episode and Amy was pretty much a bitch from the beginning. At least - she's always been cold, aloof and distant from all her co-workers. Now that she's trying to somewhat fit in she's actually getting warmer, not colder. I suppose there have been moments, here and there, where she's shown a softer side, but just because she usually slips back into her default attitude doesn't mean they're changing her character or anything.

[MaryMitch]

OMG, Dina and Glenn were hysterical! They made Dina a bit nicer and Glenn a bit less annoying. (I guess Glenn was desperate!)

[Monie]

12 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

This season has been somewhat lackluster up 'til now but this episode was great. The entire bit with Glenn behind the sheet and the pixelated penis was hysterical. The whole healthcare thing was hilarious too. I noticed one of the plan levels in their final draft was "Targaryen."  

I've seen this comment before and I don't understand where that perception is coming from. I went back and watched the pilot episode and Amy was pretty much a bitch from the beginning. At least - she's always been cold, aloof and distant from all her co-workers. Now that she's trying to somewhat fit in she's actually getting warmer, not colder. I suppose there have been moments, here and there, where she's shown a softer side, but just because she usually slips back into her default attitude doesn't mean they're changing her character or anything.

I agree....Amy is Amy bottom line. All the character's are individual and I think Amy would be boring if she was a sweetie pie. She is the resident smart ass. ;o)

[tennisgurl]

Dina and Glenn were hilarious! Definitely a better episode for Dina than they've had in the past for episodes.

I hope the pharmacist gets more scenes in the future. He cracks me up. "Oh boy, that was Oxy..." 

I will have to go back to their Health Care Board to look at it again. I saw Hogwarts houses, Game of Thrones characters, a viking ship, and apparently a ring of fire in there somewhere?

[SayMyName]

Amy is the "straight man" surrounded by all of the crazy people. She is the voice of reason although she wants to be the fun one and fit in with everyone else.

Edited November 3, 2017 by SayMyName

[HeySandyStrange]

20 minutes ago, SayMyName said:

Amy is the "straight man" surrounded by all of the crazy people. She is the voice of reason although she wants to be the fun one and fit in with everyone else.

To me Amy is way beyond the straight man now, she is such a Debbie Downer and bitter. Yeah, she's always been kind of this way, but they've been exaggerating it to the hilt this season. Somehow Jonah has become slightly more likable to me. I actually would prefer him with Kelly right now. With her being such a killjoy, the Amy/Jonah thing is even less attractive to me then before.

Also, I consider Garrett pretty normal, just a bit immature and a slacker.

Edited November 3, 2017 by HeySandyStrange

[iMonrey]

I think it's more the case that as the other characters become more endearing to us, the more irritating Amy's attitude seems to us. They aren't exaggerating her attitude, it's not gotten any worse or changed in any significant way since the pilot episode. It's more likely that the more we see of her the less tolerant we are of her. That may translate as "they're making her more and more unlikeable" but "they" haven't changed her a bit. We're the ones who are changing. The more we see her, the less we like her (at least some of us, apparently). But she herself is no different than she ever was.

[malaluna]

Amy suggesting VapoRub was hilarious, as a southern Hispanic mom...I think of it as a miracle drug myself. 

Marcus' leg looks like it had cabin fever.

I'm glad Sandra stood up for herself for once, her coworkers treat her like poop. 

Garrett needs to learn how to knock geez. 

I didn't like the Dina and Glenn bit, but it was sweet of her to help him. I see future storylines involving him trying have a bio child now. 

[fishcakes]

Except for Glenn's penis mole (and especially Dina reassuring Glenn that she would examine his mole without his having to look at her vagina), I kind of hated this episode. I can't help but compare it to the "Health Care" episode of The Office where Dwight was tasked with picking an insurance plan for the office. That was funny because Dwight was being stupid and the others had to try to work around that. But this episode had everyone at Cloud 9 being stupid. Normally, I love Sandra, but throwing a fit because $20 a month won't cover her laundry list of chronic illnesses and pay for her boyfriend's home health care aide just makes me want to shake her. People donating money in good faith so Mateo could get see a doctor only for him to turn around and spend that money on a knockoff designer bag made me want to thump him in the head. It seemed like the underlying message was that the reason insurance and health care is so costly is because people overuse it in order to get something at the expense of others, when the problem is actually far more complex with the lion's share of fault belonging to the providers and not the consumers. I think there was potentially a good episode to be had about the absurdity of a system where people with insurance still can find costs out-of-reach, but this one wasn't it.

[Big Mother]

Two way easier routes for them to take would be to 1) go to the ER, they cant turn anyone away regardless of insurance coverage.. I think. Or find a free clinic.  2) maybe their efforts shouldve been directed to talking to corporate about changing the health plan?

The episode was hilarious though. very farcical :D

[Utpe]

1 hour ago, Big Mother said:

Two way easier routes for them to take would be to 1) go to the ER, they cant turn anyone away regardless of insurance coverage.. I think. Or find a free clinic.  2) maybe their efforts shouldve been directed to talking to corporate about changing the health plan?

The episode was hilarious though. very farcical :D

Right, or try to find a way to meet your deductible.

I remember a friend of mine had something like $6,400 a month (or year, don't remember).  He would go balls to the wall and get every single possible medical treatment, even if it was for just something minor.  Call an ambulance and get yourself as an inpatient.  Once you hit about $10k, then you can go see your regular primary doctor.  It's a bit much but it does work.

The pharmacist is always hilarious.  Josh Lawson kills it when he's on the screen.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

13 minutes ago, Utpe said:

1 hour ago, Big Mother said:

Two way easier routes for them to take would be to 1) go to the ER, they cant turn anyone away regardless of insurance coverage.. I think. Or find a free clinic.  2) maybe their efforts shouldve been directed to talking to corporate about changing the health plan?

The episode was hilarious though. very farcical :D

Right, or try to find a way to meet your deductible.

I remember a friend of mine had something like $6,400 a month (or year, don't remember).  He would go balls to the wall and get every single possible medical treatment, even if it was for just something minor.  Call an ambulance and get yourself as an inpatient.  Once you hit about $10k, then you can go see your regular primary doctor.  It's a bit much but it does work.

But that means your friend first spent about $6,400 out of pocket, then everything was free or had a small co-payment.

If the Superstore employees had $4,000 to spend to meet their deductible, they wouldn't have a problem seeing a doctor for an earache, or affording an a inhaler, each of which is probably only a few hundred dollars.

[Big Mother]

also, a sick visit for an ear infection costs about $50. Instead of having a jar for a health fund for everyone, Mateo couldve just borrowed 10 dollars from 5 colleagues and paid them back later. The antibiotics, however, wouldve been a problem :-\, although with a prescription I'm sure he couldve gotten an employee discount. Or sometimes doctors have free samples. Nu, I'm just nitpicking a funny episode.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

18 minutes ago, Big Mother said:

also, a sick visit for an ear infection costs about $50

I believe that with my insurance, until I meet my deductible, the cost for any sick visit would be over $100.  (Until I meet the deductible, only preventative visits are covered; everything else is billed at the negotiated insurance price, not just a co-payment).  Of course, without insurance and a negotiated price, the cost would be far more.

[possibilities]

You can't be turned away from the ER, but you can be charged for it and it can be very costly. If you're working a minimum wage job, you may be having trouble paying your rent, and adding a wage-garnishing to cover a medical bill can put you in danger of homelessness. Yes, you can usually get payment plans for big bills, but again-- the closer you are to not getting by already, the harder it is to deal with even an installment plan that's going to make it worse. But that's not the kind of thing that makes for a funny tv show, so they glossed over it.

What I found strange was that Dina had better access to doctors than anyone else there, including her boss. That doesn't track.

You can sometimes have very long waits to see a specialist if you're in an underserved area (I had to wait a long time to see a GI specialist for a chronic condition even though I had good insurance and two referrals), but you can be bumped ahead in line if your primary care provider says it's an emergency. So, if Glen had gone to a primary care doctor about the mole, instead of trying to go directly to the dermatologist, he might have had less than a 6 month wait for the dermatologist, if the referring doctor thought it looked dangerous. But, again, not as funny as having Dina look at it for him.

I thought this episode had potential, but should have gone through several more drafts and revisions. Usually the show is much better than that, and I don't leave an episode wanting to complain and poke at its mistakes.

[scarynikki12]

I don't remember where they are exactly but it can't be in or near a city because Glenn would have been able to see a dermatologist way sooner.  When I go to see my derm I call, ask who is available during the time of day that works for me, and they schedule me accordingly.  My place has about six practitioners and I'm not picky about who I see so I get an appointment easily every time.  Obviously all this is exaggerated but, still.  Also, a mole check (not removal just a check) is considered preventative care and should be covered 100% by insurance.  Getting the removal and any subsequent treatment are where the cost comes from. 

Odds are a doctor would prescribe a low cost antibiotic for Mateo's ear infection.  I'm guessing Amoxicillin (which is what shady pharmacist gave him from the free stash, though it was expired), which is super cheap with or without insurance.  Mateo's big issue would be the doctor visit.  Even if he just went to the Superstore equivalent of a MinuteClinic, where he'd get seen quickly, they'd still probably bill him at least $100 for the visit and any lab work.

And forget an ER visit.  They have to take everyone who shows up but they still bill you for the visit.  I went to college out of state and found this out the hard way one night when I had a nasty fall and went to get checked out.  I had my insurance card but it wasn't working.  Turns out the plan only covered me in my home state.  I had to pay close to $1000 for that visit and, if the billing department hadn't let my mom pay with her card over the phone, they would have sent me to collections until they got their money.

I am annoyed that they collected funds so Mateo could get treatment and he went to buy something frivolous.  Perfectly in character but annoying.  Maybe he'll continue to have ear issues as the season progresses to show the consequence.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Whenever I refer a new patient to my dermatologist they have to wait many months for a first appointment because she is so busy.  Once you are a patient, you will be fit in more quickly.  Glen was a new patient, so his story makes sense, especially as he wasn't very clear on what he was looking for, which I believe he was explaining to a machine.  At the very least, he needed to talk to a real person.

I also don't believe that a dermatologist would diagnose him based on a cell-phone picture.  If he turned out to be wrong, he might be defending a big malpractice suit later, even if he was able to establish the lack of a doctor-patient relationship.  It strikes me as way too risky.

[iMonrey]

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I don't remember where they are exactly but it can't be in or near a city because Glenn would have been able to see a dermatologist way sooner.

They're supposed to be in St. Louis. Maybe not downtown but near enough to find a good doctor. 

I do wonder what kind of insurance your typical box store worker like a full time worker at Walmart has. And if a $4000 deductible is really a thing. Sheesh.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

4 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I do wonder what kind of insurance your typical box store worker like a full time worker at Walmart has. And if a $4000 deductible is really a thing. Sheesh.

We buy insurance for our family and have a $10,000 deductible.  It's less expensive for us to pay out of pocket for occasional non-preventative (sick) care at the negotiated rate than to pay large premiums for a much lower deductible, as we have a large family.  If we were to have a year where we meet the deductible due to a hospitalization, then we would schedule as many non-preventative visits as possible, which depends on where in the policy year the deductible is met.  That would, of course, not be a good year!

[scowl]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

They're supposed to be in St. Louis. Maybe not downtown but near enough to find a good doctor. 

Or their horrible insurance plan has a short list of cheap dermatologists in their system who are booked for the next year.

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I do wonder what kind of insurance your typical box store worker like a full time worker at Walmart has. And if a $4000 deductible is really a thing. Sheesh.

The job I quit a couple of years ago (high tech, believe it or not) had something very similar. Management went on a cost-cutting spree to impress Wall Street and left us with a plan that had a $3,000 deductible and cost $700 a month. My former coworkers said the cost has been going up about $40 every six months.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

34 minutes ago, scowl said:

The job I quit a couple of years ago (high tech, believe it or not) had something very similar. Management went on a cost-cutting spree to impress Wall Street and left us with a plan that had a $3,000 deductible and cost $700 a month. My former coworkers said the cost has been going up about $40 every six months.

Some of these plans are considered catastrophic.  God forbid that you wind up in a coma like Jerry, you would have coverage, save for the first-however-many-thousand dollars, and could get decent care.  You'd worry about the deductible later.

Edited November 6, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[bonniejmac]

On 11/6/2017 at 1:49 PM, iMonrey said:

I do wonder what kind of insurance your typical box store worker like a full time worker at Walmart has. And if a $4000 deductible is really a thing. Sheesh.

It's absolutely a thing and exactly the kind of insurance Walmart offers. It's been a while since I worked there and even longer since I was a full-time employee who got my insurance there, but I'm gonna guess things haven't changed much. Their plans are pretty much all high-deductible plans, designed to be most helpful in catastrophic situations (major accidents, cancer, heart attack, etc). Relatively low monthly premiums, but you pay EVERYTHING out of pocket until you hit that deductible. Granted, what you pay is usually a negotiated rate but still. I'm still on an HDP at my current job, my current deductible is $3,500/year as an individual. I have to go to the doctor every 6 months to monitor my high blood pressure. One of the visits I can line up with my annual physical and not pay anything, but the other costs me about $100 for the visit, plus about $30 for the lab work. The introduction of health savings plans around 2005-ish helps a little (you can contribute to your account tax free and then use it on medical expenses) but it basically boils down to, with the exception of the aforementioned BP monitoring, I don't go to a doctor unless I'm at death's door.

[ClareWalks]

My husband makes six figures for a big engineering company and our deductible is nearly $5,000. Health insurance is a disgrace.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, ClareWalks said:

My husband makes six figures for a big engineering company and our deductible is nearly $5,000. Health insurance is a disgrace.

Of course, but that's a lot better than making low 5 figures and having a $4,000 deductible as the Superstore employees do. Their deductibles may be more than 20% of their wages.

Edited November 13, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[ClareWalks]

Right, but I was just saying these aren't only the lousy plans given at lower-paying jobs, these lousy plans are at every job nowadays.

[Kiddvideo]

Couldn't stand watching this episode. The people aren't geniuses but how many have been portrayed as stupid enough to think the plan would work. Sudden badass Sandra, thinking she could pay $20 and everyone else would pay to keep the terribly tiresome Coma Jerry storyline alive. Was there a contract? Enough w Justine's face. Mateo misappropriating the donations. Amy's desperation for recognition before the fund went bankrupt. Glenn's penis? Please.

I'm so disappointed. I hate this season so much.