we do that in America too and THEN we get a bill on top of it! :D
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When Europeans get sick, do they just go to the doctor without worrying about $ ?
- Thread starter Taki
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we do that in America too and THEN we get a bill on top of it! :D
In the UK it's something we don't think about except when we are asked questions like this by Americans. There are very small standard charges for dentistry but even these are waived if you qualify for certain means-tested state benefits. Prescription drugs are less than £10 per item or a bit over £100 per year prepaid for all items, and if you're over 60 they're free. All other medical treatment including drugs dispensed in a hospital is free. There are phone services and drop-in clinics to handle acute needs that fall short of an emergency.
You can go private, of course, but there's no financial way to skip the lines in a public healthcare system. You can only get fast-tracked if your issue is more severe than the issues of other patients there at the time.
No. You can pay extra for a nicer room though, where nicer just means a 1 bed room instead of a 2 bed room.
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The argument:
"I don't get sick/I don't get injured/I don't smoke, am not obese, or do drugs... So why should I have to pay for someone else's healthcare or unhealthy lifestyle?"
Nevermind the fact that if you have health insurance through your employer, you're STILL paying for someone else's healthcare regardless. It's just a smaller pool and insurance companies taking a generous cut off the top while they're at it.
And insurance companies have lobbyists in Congress.
Meanwhile here in the US we have idiots saying "but muh taxes will go up if we get universal healthcare" while corporations don't pay shit in taxes. Fucking morons.
The United States literally pays the most for the least amount of healthcare. It's absurd.
Yup. It's more like - paying extra fast tracks you in many specialists' schedules. Everyone gets the same quality, you sometimes need to wait ages for an appointment or for a surgery date.
Blows my mind that Americans don't see a problem with this. Then again most Americans never even leave their country or state so many probably don't even know how about this.
I pray for the day we don't have to worry about money when going to the doctor. Slammed back my fingers going down a water slide thing and had to pay like $200 just for him to touch my hand.
In Sweden you have to pay a minor fee for a visit. Like $15-20. And you have to pay a bit more if you have to spend a few nights on the hospital. But it's so minor that it's not even close to an issue for 99% of the people.
I was under the impression that even if you had insurance in America you still had to pay bullshit like copays and deductibles which many can't afford without notice (and even if they could it would undoutbly have a discouriging effect on going to the doctor).
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Some insurance is dog shit, some insurance is ok, some insurance is good, some insurance is great
Depends on how you define getting sick, if we are talking about minor flew and what not, I personally don't, just stay home and ride it out (unless fever gets too high or lasts too long), although part of that comes from the education we tend to get as men, where at least as far as I can tell we don't go to the doctors as often as we should.
But yeah while I usually go private since I can afford to, it has been great not to have to worry about it, when my brother got in an accident because some asshole was driving drunk on the wrong lane and broke his femur and then had to do a long time in physical therapy he didn't went broke because of it, when my father had a cyst on his throat he was operated and spent quite a bit of time in the hospital and same thing, and goes without saying it is how it should be, the last thing one wants to worry about when these emergencies happen is how are you going to pay for it.
Depending on the country you can skip the line if you go private, although even that will depend on how busy hospitals are and so on, generally if you want line skipping what you want is good contacts not money, like one of my colleagues son had a rash and she made a consultation in a private hospital and she was only going to get seen in like 2 weeks, I contacted someone I knew in that private hospital and she had a consultation reserved a couple of hours later.
That being said if it is an emergency you are ofc bumped up, that colleague of mine ended up wanting to schedule it for the next Monday instead of that Friday (she is one of those persons that the world needs to be borderline ending to miss work), her son condition got more serious and she went to the hospital and got treated "right away".
But yeah while I usually go private since I can afford to, it has been great not to have to worry about it, when my brother got in an accident because some asshole was driving drunk on the wrong lane and broke his femur and then had to do a long time in physical therapy he didn't went broke because of it, when my father had a cyst on his throat he was operated and spent quite a bit of time in the hospital and same thing, and goes without saying it is how it should be, the last thing one wants to worry about when these emergencies happen is how are you going to pay for it.
Depending on the country you can skip the line if you go private, although even that will depend on how busy hospitals are and so on, generally if you want line skipping what you want is good contacts not money, like one of my colleagues son had a rash and she made a consultation in a private hospital and she was only going to get seen in like 2 weeks, I contacted someone I knew in that private hospital and she had a consultation reserved a couple of hours later.
That being said if it is an emergency you are ofc bumped up, that colleague of mine ended up wanting to schedule it for the next Monday instead of that Friday (she is one of those persons that the world needs to be borderline ending to miss work), her son condition got more serious and she went to the hospital and got treated "right away".
Yeah, our healthcare system is fucked but a lot of people in America have insurance that works decently and doesn't bankrupt them. Painting what we have like it's a third world apocalypse for most of the country doesn't really help the cause of getting to universal healthcare.
I have government worker health insurance which is pretty good. $450 a month (pre tax) for afamily plan that's basically accepted everywhere with minimal co pays, I never have any worries going to the doctor and gladly pay the $450 for the peace of mind that brings.
Not entirely. I remember that while being on an exchange in France, my host family had problems because the father had injured himself while working, and thus had to miss work for a while. His insurance company refused to pay him for injury leave. I guess this is unrelated to hospital bills though.
WTF insurance do you have that kindly pays for everything? We have insurance and we've paid over $1,000 this quarter alone for my wife's (very normal) medical needs.
I feel sick and i go to the doctor
Get some days to stay at home
End of story
Nothing will hurt me financially even with a surgery mostly.
Think only certain things about stuff done on your teeth aren't covered but im not sure because i so far didn't realy need something extensive done on them.
I usually take around 2-3 weeks a year extra vacation through that because my doctor would even say i'm pregnant in the 10th month.
Get some days to stay at home
End of story
Nothing will hurt me financially even with a surgery mostly.
Think only certain things about stuff done on your teeth aren't covered but im not sure because i so far didn't realy need something extensive done on them.
I usually take around 2-3 weeks a year extra vacation through that because my doctor would even say i'm pregnant in the 10th month.
I've never had to think about it so it doesn't really feel like anything. It's just as normal as having electricity and water and roads and whatever else you take for granted.
Of course, with the Tory government doing their best to dismantle the NHS it's something I've started to think about more recently but before that I've never given a second thought to going to the doctor, asking for an MRI scan or any of that. You just go in, say "My back is a bit fucking fucked up doc I think I need an x-ray or MRI" and then go home and wait for your appointment. The prospect of how to pay for it has literally never crossed my mind, not even when I had to have a knee surgery. The NHS is just...there, like the air I breathe.
Of course, with the Tory government doing their best to dismantle the NHS it's something I've started to think about more recently but before that I've never given a second thought to going to the doctor, asking for an MRI scan or any of that. You just go in, say "My back is a bit fucking fucked up doc I think I need an x-ray or MRI" and then go home and wait for your appointment. The prospect of how to pay for it has literally never crossed my mind, not even when I had to have a knee surgery. The NHS is just...there, like the air I breathe.
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I didn't even mention that they have affordable higher education.
We don't want those kind of problems in our country.
Yes. I Germany there are two types of health insurance. One is private, it costs more but it's more profitable for the doctor so that leads to preferred trearment usually. Even if you are part of the public, cheaper insurance system though you can pay for perks like just one or two bed hospital rooms or visits from the chief doctor.
I pay around 280€ per month as a phd student. It's quite okay in Berlin. You get problems though finding appointments for eye doctors. I swear every second medical practice is private, meaning you won't get an appointment there for having an statutory health insurance.
I had to spend about 6 weeks in hospital when my pancreas stopped working.
Think it ended up costing me about 15 dollars a day for the bed and food.
Nothing for the surgeries and xrays/medicine.
Think it ended up costing me about 15 dollars a day for the bed and food.
Nothing for the surgeries and xrays/medicine.
As an American this is sadly untrue
You may still be on the line even after paying a shit ton monthly
And employers try to set you up with a ripoff "health savings account"
FOH
Guess I need to learn more about private vs public healthcare providers. If you make every Private provider take in publicly insured patients, would that solve the problem?
Also it's just as worse in US with private insurance. During flu season good luck if you can go see a doctor in under a week. It's not worth it. Even in ER they make you sit in waiting room for hours if your injury is not life threatening.
I had to go through an emergency dental surgery a few weeks ago. A nasty infection under one of my teeth that wasn't possible to reach without piercing a hole in the teeth. Took an hour and would have cost me 250-300€ for the whole thing.
It ended up costing me around 35€ thanks to the health insurance. It does feel good living in a civilized country.
It ended up costing me around 35€ thanks to the health insurance. It does feel good living in a civilized country.
Even if that was how it worked everywhere that would still be terrible though, you shouldn't have to basically be employed to not worry about a medical accident bankrupting you, especially when a medical issue can affect your work and lead you to be more likely to be unemployed, you should be able to be living on the street and still get free health care.
Listen folks, freedom isn't free. You can keep your fancy free healthcare, we will choose our freedom and support of Jesus and his Constitution.
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Debate floor: "If they can't get a decent job then they don't deserve those perks anyway. I shouldn't have to pay for someone else's free ride."
It's not enough that I succeed... Others should fail.
:-/
We have insurance and had to pay several thousand dollars in medical bills last year. Not to mention that having insurance tied to employment means losing your job means you're screwed.
We don't have universal healthcare in Ireland but if you're living under a certain wage line you do get mostly free and somewhat heavily discounted healthcare. It's great. I'd have died without the HSE several times over my life, and most of my medication is very expensive. It used to be completely free, then they introduced a €0.50 charge on each item when the Irish economy collapsed, then they upped it a few times more. Now every month I pay around €8 for about four different tablets, and going from free to that is still all good with me. I've had stays in hospital, and many medical tests done on me once when I got very sick and threw up a huge amount of blood - I was a child and my parents didn't have to pay a damn thing.
There is no reason why a rich western country like America can't have, if not universal healthcare, a similar system. Yet sadly the country seems to be mostly run on greed.
There is no reason why a rich western country like America can't have, if not universal healthcare, a similar system. Yet sadly the country seems to be mostly run on greed.
Not at public hospitals. It's a severity based system, but they just ask general questions like, "Does it hurt?" and then send you to a designated area. You just have to go in saying, "I can't feel my leg" or whatever and they rush you through. I should have said that.
Yup, it's great.
The only downside is idiots clogging up the system with 'issues' that'd be solved with a couple of aspirin.
The only downside is idiots clogging up the system with 'issues' that'd be solved with a couple of aspirin.
I agree with you, I'm just saying that most Americans do have health insurance through their employers and aren't facing personal bankruptcy because of a hospital visit. As this thread proves, a lot of people who don't live in the US view our healthcare system as much worse than it actually is and I don't think that type of framing is helpful when you're trying to move us towards a universal coverage system.
Case and point
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