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CPlus902 t1_ja5j3wj wrote

Reply to comment by DrMonkeyLove in I found a bat in my pool. He’s very much alive. I set him in the sun to dry out away from my dog by Handicapreader

Yes and no. Deaths in the US are exceedingly rare, but it's only because of how seriously we take rabies here. If you are infected and do not receive treatment before symptoms manifest, it is 100% fatal.

The good thing is that it is pretty easy to avoid rabies exposure in the US. Just maintain a safe distance from wild animals, as you should in any case.

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danimagoo t1_ja5sxpe wrote

>but it's only because of how seriously we take rabies here

Specifically, it's because we mandate rabies vaccines for dogs. Worldwide, 99% of rabies deaths in humans are caused by dogs. Once you get about 70% of the dog population vaccinated, and keep it there, human deaths drop to essentially zero.

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eileen404 t1_ja5vmvk wrote

But if you touch one so get the shots.... Or if you don't have insurance in the USA, take a holiday in another country and get them there as even with the hotel and place tickets it'll be cheaper.

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Mithras_ t1_ja6izfc wrote

You have to pay for rabies shots in the US? Why the fuck

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Leo_br00ks t1_ja6knha wrote

Lol you have to pay for everything in the US. 1.2 mile ambulance ride was $3500 lmfao. Insurance didn’t cover it at all. I once got a $800 shot of penicillin — insurance covered $15 of it.

Last year my household (2 people) spent $29k on medical. $10000 on insurance, $10000 in necessary surgeries, and $8000 on prescriptions, dr visits, and whatever the fuck else.

Thank god I have freedom of speech lol

Edit: just reread, and to clarify, my insurance was high deductible with an $18000 threshold. Both people in household basically reached the threshold but did not exceed.

For the non Americans, if we had needed much more health coverage, it would primarily be free or mostly covered from there on. The point of a high deductible plan is that it’s cheaper (as self employed people this is the main draw, as my employer doesn’t cover anything) but covers you if something really bad happens. If I got cancer, my million dollar bill would be covered. Paying out of pocket for great coverage (what I have this year) would be about $25000 instead of $10000, but this is paid by an employer (100% in our case). I pay literally nothing extra. My extra expenses this year have been less than $200.

P2 requires surgery that isn’t covered by this new great insurance, so there’s another $11000. So there’s no winning here lol

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Mithras_ t1_ja6lylk wrote

That’s insane. I know it happens but I always find it hard to wrap my head around. Did you also have to pay for covid vaccination?

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Leo_br00ks t1_ja6nnsv wrote

We didn’t have to (govt paid them like $2 or $4 a shot or something). Now that the “emergency status” or whatever is ending (over?) we may have to start paying.

Most insurances will cover it I’m sure. But if you don’t have it, it’ll be like $100 a shot or so. There were articles a while ago about Moderna bumping the price way up lol

Like the flu shot. They’re trying to get as many people to take it, so a lot of places will take your insurance and just bill them the most they can to cover for the people who have 0 coverage. This is like Walgreens and stuff. A Dr office is different.

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Mithras_ t1_ja6sb4z wrote

Thanks for the explanation :) You have to pay for the flu shot here too (Egypt) but the Covid and Rabies vaccine are free including for visitors so if someone fancies a trip it might actually be cheaper to fly here and get them you weren’t joking

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Leo_br00ks t1_ja6smie wrote

With insurance covering it, rabies cost should be no more than $200.

BUT you have to have insurance that will cover it. My new insurance will cover it but my old one wouldn’t have unless I was over the $18000 deductible for the year.

When I got my yellow fever shot, it was $250 bc insurance didn’t deem it necessary

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Mithras_ t1_ja6szb6 wrote

Yellow Fever isn’t endemic to the states right? You have to pay for it here too but that makes sense since it’s actually unnecessary unless you wish to travel which is on you — allowing things like covid and rabies to go untreated is a public safety hazard though

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Leo_br00ks t1_jabrzoz wrote

Correct. Just for travel. And only to risk prone countries. Don’t need it for travel into most “western” nations

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eileen404 t1_ja7ben8 wrote

No I wasn't. And you should get your knee replacement surgery while you're there. It costs more than most make in a year. My daughter got hurt in Canada and we laughed at the doctor apologetically giving us a bill for$98. They gave us copies of the paperwork so we could file it to insurance when we got home and we laughed because out of network had a $5k deductable before it started converting at 80%.

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Nero_PR t1_ja7ta25 wrote

Here you get a scrap somewhere and people always go for the rabies shot. It's plain and simple.

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Mithras_ t1_ja8f88t wrote

So make the first course free for everyone. You’ll likely have enough immunity by then even if you get bitten again and if you need to take regular preventative shots due to the risk of your work or hobbies you can pay for it

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bulboustadpole t1_ja6r3f6 wrote

>Yes and no. Deaths in the US are exceedingly rare, but it's only because of how seriously we take rabies here.

Well no this is not why. How many people do you think actually go and get the whole series of vaccines? Very little, and yet are under 10 deaths per year.

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KairuByte t1_ja6xas8 wrote

We treat rabies seriously in other ways. Rabies vaccines are required for all dogs, for instance.

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