How much does seeing a therapist/getting antidepressants cost with catastrophic insurance?

Throw yourself at the mercy of a good community clinic and explain your craptastic insurance and ask for a sliding scale. I predict a few appointments at $25 to 50 and away you go.

are you serious? i was expecting to have to front 1k easily. can you elaborate? I'm not joking.

Sliderz wrote:

Throw yourself at the mercy of a good community clinic and explain your craptastic insurance and ask for a sliding scale. I predict a few appointments at $25 to 50 and away you go.

I received a coupon from Papa John's the other day for a large pizza and 2-liter of soda for $10. There are additional delivery and tip charges so the whole thing comes out to around $16.00 USD.

I ordered a large pizza with pepperoni with extra cheese and Diet Dr. Pepper because I am health conscious. It should be here in another 20 minutes. I expect to eat 1/2 of the pizza and none of the soda since it is late and I need to wake up early for work.

I also ran a double today. 7 this afternoon and 3 in the early evening. I hope you are all having a nice day.

tell him now, please wrote:

are you serious? i was expecting to have to front 1k easily. can you elaborate? I'm not joking.

Sliderz wrote:

Throw yourself at the mercy of a good community clinic and explain your craptastic insurance and ask for a sliding scale. I predict a few appointments at $25 to 50 and away you go.

No chance.

Do you qualify for medicaid?

Therapist for my kid here (CT) is $150 per 50 minute session. I think several of the antidepressants are generic now

I can only tell you my personal costs.

I spend $150 for a doctor visit. At first it was once every month and after a few months when the medications and doses were figured out it would go to every three months. After a few of those it's every six months. $150 a trip.

Then you have the meds. No clue what you'd be covered for with your insurance. I'm on two medications. I want to say without insurance one is $130 a month or so and the other is like $80? With my insurance (not even sure what I have outside of it being Blue Cross) I pay a whopping $35 every 3 months for all my meds.

Best money i've ever spent. It doesn't work for everyone but getting medicated changed my life.

FYI....I'm on 50mg of Zoloft (whatever the knockoff version is) and 300mg of the knockoff Welbutrin.

Cost for psychiatrist/hour in our area = $275/hour.

You need a psychiatrist to prescribe medication.

Bare minimum: two hours to assess the situation + 8 sessions = $2750

Monthly sessions after that x 10 = $2750

Medication = $100-$200/month

So, maybe $8500-7300 for the first year for outpatient treatment.

Sounds like a lot, but much less expensive than inpatient treatment.

We have catastrophic health insurance as well. One workaround that we have found is a self funded HSA so we can pay these costs with pretax dollars. Best of luck to you with this.

Seriously ... why do you only have catastrophic insurance? Just trying to understand your economics?

Brain surgery? Wow...

Check with local universities and for profit schools with academic programs in counseling, you might get some help there.

Best bet is to read your policy. Do you pay everything at 100% until you hit your deductible? You might consider shopping for a new policy.

tell him now, please wrote:

My deductible is about 7k, so it's as if i dont have insurance until i have brain surgery.

cost of insurance increases with age. as you get older, it gets less affordable...

tell him now, please wrote:

My deductible is about 7k, so it's as if i dont have insurance until i have brain surgery.

I avoided taking medication for about 10 long, stupid years but got on Zoloft recently. Also best decision I've ever made. Seeing a psychiatrist (who prescribed the meds on my first visit) cost $250 w/ three months of followup.

Zoloft is cheap--like $10.

Also have catastrophic insurance with very high deductible.

I've paid out of pocket for talk therapy over the years--probably 5k and none of it covered by insurance. I just should have gone straight to meds.

Yes, find yourself a community mental health clinic. It is possible that you will qualify for reduced fees on a sliding scale. If you need additional help finding that, let me know what state you are in and I can help you figure out how to find one.

OK, lets think about your insurance options.

Last year, before you needed a therapist/antidepressants, the catastrophic insurance might have made sense.

This year, your choices are the quack in the back of the Sam's club handing out free samples of knock-off drugs or buying real insurance.

It appears that from now on you are going to need to pay $7k per year in doctors costs. When you add that to what you are already paying, all of a sudden, you can afford insurance with a reasonable deductible.

You can argue all you want that once your dosage is set you won't be spending as much but really that is when your appendix will burst or whatever else.

Have you even looked at how much real insurance costs?

&&TGIU123gf)A(bh wrote:

OK, lets think about your insurance options.

Last year, before you needed a therapist/antidepressants, the catastrophic insurance might have made sense.

This year, your choices are the quack in the back of the Sam's club handing out free samples of knock-off drugs or buying real insurance.

It appears that from now on you are going to need to pay $7k per year in doctors costs. When you add that to what you are already paying, all of a sudden, you can afford insurance with a reasonable deductible.

You can argue all you want that once your dosage is set you won't be spending as much but really that is when your appendix will burst or whatever else.

Have you even looked at how much real insurance costs?

This is not a realistic post at all. You do not have to spend $7000 dollars for some visits w/ a therapist and some anti-depressants. Not even close.

To then compare with a more comprehensive health care policy, you would have to compare the relative costs and the deductible/copay/out of pocket for the other insurance as well. Those costs don't just go away.

This may be a reasonable choice but we don't have enough information to say.

run with the wom wrote:

Seriously ... why do you only have catastrophic insurance? Just trying to understand your economics?

also, we don't have insurance through employment, spouse is self-employed, and it is expensive

the 7K is just an estimate. it depends on what your problem is and what you and the psychiatrist feel is in your best interest. depression can also be treated by primary care doctors.

If all you want is anti-depressant drugs, your PCP will do fine and he will be cheap. Some anti-depressant drugs are very cheap. Total cost a few hundred.

my mom kicked me out because I kept taking dumps in the kitchen sink