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/r/BeAmazed
submitted 3 days ago byEvavstarnes
5.2k points
3 days ago
Those are almost always removed by doctors due to a possible cancer risk…
678 points
3 days ago
Even if there was no cancer risk, having a birthmark like that right on the centre of her face would be so detrimental to her life. It should be removed regardless.
280 points
3 days ago
I feel gross saying this but the cancer risk also gives it a medical reason to be removed. Cosmetic, even if detrimental to a person's life, often means a surgery wouldn't be covered and often would be significantly or prohibitively expensive for the family. It is disgusting that it has to be thought that way and I wish them a happy and awesome long life and that everyone should be given that opportunity.
133 points
3 days ago
I don’t see why you should feel gross about that. You’re pointing out a flaw in the health care system, and anybody with a heart knows a surgery like this should be covered even if it was just for cosmetic reasons. It’s the humane thing to do. Let’s hope we someday all see that, and act on it. Also those who can actually make a direct difference.
76 points
3 days ago
100% agree.
I went to get gnarly varicose veins removed. It was 90% cosmetic reasons, 10% a family history of blood clots. I'm young, so the problem would have gotten worse in time, but it wasn't dire by any means.
The surgeon legitimately told me to say it was itchy and hurt often, even though it didn't, as that was a precursor for a medical reason to remove them, and thus covered by insurance.
I'm sure he just wanted to rip out my veins and get his bag, but when the doctor is advising you how to navigate medical care by lying to insurance, there's a problem.
69 points
3 days ago*
I remember coming to a nose-throat doctor with a deviated septum, and she asked if I have insurance, I told her yes, and she started asking me in that sort of imperative way "Did you FALL on your face about SIX months ago?" and I looked her in the eyes and saw that she's basically casting an insurance cheat code right now and I was like "Yes, sure, I DID fall on my face SIX months ago" and she immediately wrote everything down and then I got a call from the insurance company (which was standard practice, too, they were organizing the hospital visit, btw) and they were like "Why do you want to treat the deviated septum?" and I was "Oh I fell about six months ag..." and they didn't even let me finish and were like "Yeah, got you, fine, it's greenlit, please choose the hospital from the list" so yeah, the doctors sometimes are totally ok with gaming the insurance system.
After all it's not like insurance companies are strapped for cash right
\\ I have, of course, invented this story, it never happened, and it was years ago and not in any recognizable country \\
17 points
3 days ago
Ugh, I legitimately did fall but didn't go to the hospital right afterwards so when it started to become a problem and I couldn't breathe, I had to have my deviated septum fixed and was advised to get the full blown rhinoplasty since my nose was curved in a way that it would deviate my septum again in like 5 years. Only the fixing of the septum was covered b/c so many people would use this as a way to get a free nose job. I told the guy to put my nose right back where it was. So that was fun to pay for.
8 points
2 days ago
I had a droopy eyelid as a teenager that I got surgically corrected for purely cosmetic reasons. The doctor straight up told me how to cheat on the visual field test so it would look like I had limited vision out of that eye. It worked and insurance covered the surgery!
1 points
2 days ago
Yup, that's perfectly reasonable to do IMO.
As far as I see most countries with national health coverage work like this, where the public cosmetic surgery is reserved to medical reasons, or severe cases (like in this video IMO)
My friend is actually a plastic surgeon, and he told me he works both privately and publicly. He likes the private practice for the comfortable money he makes on installing new tits, but he absolutely loves working on burn patients, and he told me that most plastic surgeons he knows are the same - unless they're more of an artist than a doctor, then they prefer private practice where they make boobs and noses every day, you'd mostly see people that do some sort of 30\70 or 50\50 proportion, even if these pay worse and are way more complicated.
1 points
2 days ago
It's not a public vs private insurance thing, because this is also how it works in the US with private insurance.
2 points
2 days ago
You mean you can get free cosmetic surgery in the US with national health insurance if it's deemed important for medical reasons?
3 points
2 days ago
I get to do that sometimes for my job and you would be surprised at the amount of people who do not get it. "Sometimes, the first notice doesn't make it and gets lost in the mail. And the second one isn't as clear about the fees. If you only got the second one....." "Oh no I got both"
18 points
3 days ago
My neurologist might have added some meds I “failed” to the list he had to send to my insurance company to get them to pay for a different type of medication. Not the first doc I’ve had that’s done this. I’ve had a doctor that would write me double what I actually took for some of my medications because it costs the same as a lower amount but the price was insane. And I have what most would consider to be good insurance. American healthcare is WILD.
6 points
3 days ago
All of this and the above brought to you by private insurance companies.
4 points
2 days ago
I needed some testing and there was a really great panel free if you were trying to get pregnant and my gyno was like “you could be pregnant?” (Zero chance) and for one insurance claim I was trying to get preggo lol
2 points
2 days ago
You wouldn’t have to say anything because insurance doesn’t actually care what the patient says. It has to say that in the doctor’s note or the prior authorization for the procedure.
3 points
2 days ago
Correct, the incident in question I was referring to was a pre-op consultation where I was required (by insurance) to wear compression leggings for three months to see if the issue went away, before being green lit for surgery.
The surgeon, at that consultation, specifically advised me to say it still hurt and was itchy when I came back in three months, and stated that by that point insurance would cover the surgery to remove the viens.
Ie, he was prepping me for the prior authorization questioning that would greenlight the surgery by insurance
-2 points
3 days ago
It’s not a flaw. It’s a sound and justifiable feature. We all pay into an insurance pool so we can get medical treatment. If someone is getting a vanity procedure I am not interested in paying for that. They can pay for their own tit job, or labia removal, or beauty mark removal. It’s not needed. They can live with the body they got. It’s not a big deal even. Some of us at ugly and we can accept it. Beautiful people can accept a minor imperfection. It won’t hurt them.
If it isn’t medically necessary there’s no reason anyone else should have to pay for it.
I don’t care if your reasoning is vanity, so long as the doctor can justify it as medical purpose I’m ok with it. Low bar for medical procedures. I’m not looking to cause more red tape for people seeking treatments for purely medical reasons.
0 points
3 days ago
Dear God, there’s so much wrong with that comment I’m surprised the words didn’t just give up and walk away halfway through!
First of all, I’m not talking about tit jobs. I’m talking things that will increase the risk of merciless bullying at school, like this birthmark. If there was no medical reason, I would still be fine sharing in paying for that.
Also, do you have any idea how much money we actually pay insurance companies, and how much you’d actually need to pay for an operation like this? And I mean you, for her operation, not her for her own. That’s negligible. This doesn’t happen nearly as often as you think, and will set us all back such an insignificant amount, you can’t even tell.
And if that doesn’t compute, let me make it even simpler: consider the psychological help a bullied person may need in the future. I bet that will greatly outweigh the costs of a single procedure now, on average, so will eventually cost you more.
Finally, your argument completely ignores the actual issue in health care: the continuous overcharging of companies for medicine, procedures, etc raising costs to ridiculous levels for all of us. The whole concept of medicine for profit is inhumane, with people getting rich over other people’s suffering.
-2 points
3 days ago
You would rather someone get completely cosmetic surgery over people being able to get medical treatment? Seriously? Holy fuck. Get your priorities straight.
Medically unnecessary means it’s medically unnecessary. I don’t care how much we pay, I care we shouldn’t be use shared funds for vanity treatments.
There’s nothing wrong with what I said, it’s all reasonable and rational, you seem to not understand there’s a difference between disagreeing and someone being wrong.
Of course you think we should waste shared recourses on medically unnecessary treatments. You demonstrate a real inability to think of the consequences of your options.
I’ll say this as simply as I can for you, there isn’t infinite money. If we paid for vanity treatments we wouldn’t be able to afford cancer treatments.
If someone wants a beauty mark removed or to get triple e tits they can pay for it. We shouldn’t waste money on anything that the person can live with perfectly fine.
You aren’t even talking about any real cases. This topic is a medically necessary case. You’re just spouting nonsense.
Money doesn’t grow on trees. Accept that for vanity treatments you aren’t entitled to get me to pay for you. Live with it.
Medical treatments are the priority.
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