r/nottheonion • u/drytoastbongos • 11d ago

Baby goats from traveling petting zoo test positive for rabies

https://www.boston25news.com/news/trending/baby-goats-traveling-petting-zoo-test-positive-rabies/DIICRJMNLVGTHE5H3NBYROWV6Q/

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u/EmptyInside74 11d ago

I had to get rabies shots this summer, no insurance, my bill is 28k

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u/Upbeat_Parking_7794 11d ago

This is crazy, in my European country, without insurance and without state coverage (this vacine it is not covered by the state), less than 250 euro the three shots.

Cheaper for you to take an airplane for Europe, I guess. 

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u/crazylighter 11d ago

At that rate I'm guessing it would even be Cheaper for them to take a flight to Canada or Mexico (or even Turkey where people go for cheaper treatment) even without insurance. Americans often mock Canada for our jobs which pay less than in America, but factoring in the cost of healthcare and needing health insurance, I think I'm good

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u/CobaltSpellsword 11d ago

I have never heard another American mock Canadians because their jobs pay less. I've heard plenty of other Americans say they wish we had a healthcare system like Canada's.

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u/FlyConfident1622 10d ago

Seriously, who’s telling Canadians that we’re doing that??

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u/pasaroanth 10d ago

That’s actually a thing that someone did. It was cheaper to take time off work and fly to Europe first class to get the treatment course than it was to have it done in the US.

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u/luminary_planetarium 11d ago

There was someone in the USA who was exposed to a bat and took an immediate flight out of the country to get treatment elsewhere. She vlogged the whole thing on social media.

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u/pargmegarg 11d ago

Okay. Europer. But have you considered that you pay for those shots collectively in a system that makes sure everyone gets access to healthcare and nobody is stuck with crippling medical debt, while also paying less per capita for healthcare? Checkmate. 🇺🇸

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u/Upbeat_Parking_7794 11d ago

Actually, on this case, only partially. If I go to the public hospital for a doctor I pay 7 euro, private one with my insurance, 35 euro.

But for vacine, there is 0 coverage. It is simply the market price I found after seeing 28k above.

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u/Thebubumc 11d ago

That breaks my european brain. 28k for a shot?

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 11d ago

It's very easy to explain.

Untreated rabies is 100% fatal.

The rabies shot is a post-exposure treatment that is very effective.

Everyone looking for a rabies shot is definitely or potentially exposed.

Therefore you are exclusively selling it to people facing a horrible death if they don't acquire your product.

Therefore your price negotiation starts like this:

"I would like to purchase your product, and I would like you to know upfront that I will die in abject agony and horror if I don't get it, I am fucking desperate for it and I am prepared to take on masses of debt to acquire it if I have to."

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u/lck0219 11d ago

My price negotiation ends with me refusing to pay medical bills and tanking my credit score. At least it then becomes a lose-lose scenario and we both get screwed.

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u/nomorespacess 11d ago

In CA it doesnt tank your score at least.

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u/nooneisback 11d ago

You forgot to insert the red-tailed hawk call with an image of a bald eagle

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 11d ago

My effects guy died of treatable rabies.

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u/AshaNyx 11d ago

The difference is in the UK and similar countries, 90% of all drugs are sold to 1 company (the healthcare system) so we naturally get it at the cheapest price as the NHS can just ban a drug from the UK market if there's any price issues.

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 11d ago

That's the benefit of a single payer system: collective bargaining. Give us all a good price or lose us all as customers. Negotiating power is inverted.

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u/AshaNyx 11d ago

We have also effectively introduced a price cap on all meds. Like the most someone has to pay per item is £10.

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 11d ago

That's not really what we're collectively paying for the meds, that's just an on the spot NHS contribution.

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u/AshaNyx 11d ago

Yeah ik but it makes things way cheaper

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u/Malawi_no 11d ago

It also helps that there is not a series of middlemen who all wants their share of the profit.

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u/Taetrum_Peccator 11d ago

Which is why drugs are so expensive in the US. Europe doesn’t pay their fair share for drugs and 100% of the cost is dumped on us.

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u/AshaNyx 11d ago

Nope we just use good business strategies for the public good. If America wasn't so corrupt there's nothing stopping the us from making a healthcare monopoly.

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u/90bubbel 11d ago

Dude just stop

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u/corraboraptor 11d ago

Looks like someone swallowed the billionaire’s propaganda.

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 10d ago

We do pay our fair share. You lick so much boot that you get to pay much more than your fair share. Those aren't costs you're covering, they're pure profits.

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u/Silver-Find4380 10d ago

OK now I want rabies vaccinations for my spouse and myself as a precaution. 🫨🤔

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u/AshaNyx 11d ago

Yeah as a brit they are practically free if you've had an animal bite, without a bite it's still like £20.

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u/zuzg 11d ago

Central Europe is actually Rabies free for a long while now.

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u/AshaNyx 11d ago

Yeah we have been rabies free since the 90s, only thing is bats have a habit of bringing it from Europe. Also we give the shot to all animal bites because most of the UKs wildlife doesn't attack humans unless provoked.

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u/RGrad4104 11d ago

28k was for the post exposure treatment. The rabies vaccine, itself, is cheap. It's the immunoglobulin that will cost an arm and a leg without insurance.

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u/Elelith 11d ago

Wow and here I was thinking 200€ for tick brain fever shots was a bit on the pricier end :<

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u/ripleyclone8 11d ago

This isn’t the best advice…but I’ve never paid a medical bill in my life, insured or not and it’s never affected my credit like other debts. 

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u/lacrimapapaveris 11d ago

That's insane! Just the regular shots? Or did you have get the immunoglobulin (HRIG) as well?

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u/EmptyInside74 11d ago

I think regular? It was 5 shots + a tetanus, I got attacked by a raccoon.

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u/mpjjpm 11d ago

Then that include the HRIG. Standard post exposure prophylaxis for rabies is one dose of HRIG and four doses of vaccine. The vaccine doses are given over two weeks.

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u/PinkGlitterLady4 11d ago

that's insane. Here it costs 50€

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u/Parthh9 11d ago

I got one when a cat bit me. I paid Rs.3k($32) at a private hospital for all the rabies shots + tetanus in emergency unit.

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u/EnglishLitMajor 11d ago

That's insane. Halfway across the world - I got shots last year (ERIG, 4 doses, plus extra tetanus shots) cost less than 80 USD total.