Effendi
LE
Do you have insurance in the U.S?
Yes
Before I had dental insurance, I had similar bills. Since then - about 10-15% is what I pay. And the quality of the care is head and shoulders on what I received in the Uk and by MIL dentists. Do they try and up sell you... every time. Is dealing with insurance billing a pain - 100%.
Oh no, I have dental insurance. But, as you know dental policies only have a given annual payout value. Mine is around $1500 - $2000 annually, every time I visit the dentist the cost of the treatment is taken off the remaining balance. I like to know what I am paying for treatment through my insurance provider because at the end of the day I am the customer.
Me and my circle - we all work hard. My mother is blown away by the quality of the care here. It’s not cheap, but it’s superior.
We could discuss that at length sometime.
If the NHS is so good, why did you have to go to Germany? I bet a similar procedure would have been multiple years waiting. You saved $5k dealing with the German healthcare system ( probably subsidized by German taxpayers).
I have lived in the USA so therefore I do not legally qualify for free NHS treatment in the UK, neither do you.
I can afford it so I went to Germany to see the people who invented the procedure, are the best at the procedure, and teach the procedure to all the other Docs around the planet.
Experiences obviously differ, but zero is impressive about the NHS, apart from no point of contact billing. But everytime someone pays that exorbitant VAT and the crimp on the economy, so someone else can reap the benefit of the system- what’s the cost?
I worked it out once that it was costing the highest national insurance payer around 65 quid a month for them and their family to benefit from the NHS.
The U.S model is a capitalist model vs the NHS as a socialist. Thank **** we have a choice (we are lucky) I will stick with my current one.
TBH for a capitalist system where Dr.s are charging a fortune for their time and comparatively limited experience the customer care and handling is shite, and to be honest absolutely no better than most small town NHS hospitals. I used to use the private Three Shires Hospital, Northampton, the Spire Hospital in Leicester, and the Spire Hospital in Harpenden. I was an experienced user of private medicine before I arrived in the USA and I am sadly disappointed by what is on offer here. Somewhere I even have a letter sent to me by the world famous (their description, not mine) may0 Clinic telling me never to darken their door again.
The May0 incident was a fcuk up from start to finish. I had a 14.00hrs appointment for which I arrived early, in fact early enough to have lunch before hand. I reported for my appointment half an hour before it was due and I was told that the Dr was not on site that day and I would be seeing another Dr. At 17.30hrs. Imagine how impressed I was, I asked them why they had not phoned to re-schedule, blank looks all around on their side.
When I eventually got to see the substitute Dr., (remember a Dr in the world famous may0 Clinic) at 17.45hrs he wandered in with my file in his hand and asked me how my tennis elbow was. Funnily enough I was there for a problem with the middle finger of my right hand, not tennis elbow - I pointed this out to him. Anyway, at the end of the consult he tells me his assistant will call to arrange a time for the procedure. Next day I get a call (remember I want a procedure on the middle finger of my right hand) to arrange a time for the procedure on the ring finger of my left hand.
I used lots of short four letter words calling the Dr.'s competence into doubt and mentioned things like reporting him to the State medical board. A couple of days later I received a signed for, Fedex delivered letter telling me to stay away from the May0 for life.
Then there was the senior whatever they call consultants in the US who was going to take an ultrasound guided biopsy from a suspect growth in my thyroid. He couldn't even prepare a sterile field properly, I told him to do it again properly or fcuk off because he was not going to stick potentially contaminated needles into me. He played the big important Dr. so I got up off the op table in my gown, told him to fcuk off and walked out to get changed.
You see @SOCALSapper I spent a year receiving medical training in two UK hospitals and a couple of other places. I know what a good Dr looks like and I still know what some of the basic procedures look like, so I don't take shit or poor drills from these overcharging *********. Add to that the fact that the Mrs does HR and has been responsible for negotiating the entire corporate healthcare insurance for a couple of financial companies here in the US (she is actually going through the annual process at the moment). The high level brokers and providers she deals with have taught her a few tricks about US healthcare provision - I won't say system, because there is no system.
I like living in the US, but unless the medical system changes to something better by the time I retire I shall be buggering off to Spain, or the South of France. I don't want to pay everything I have tucked away to some Dr. if I get ill in old age, and lets be honest, in the USA the main reason for personal bankruptcy is medical costs. And, by medical costs I don't just mean people who do not have insurance, we have a reasonably good policy so we are fine, but other people have policies where they have to pay a significant % of the cost out of their own pockets. For example, a chap I knew in Florida had to be taken to the emergency room at late o'clock with terrible pains. Turned out he had a kidney stone, he was kept in for a couple of days and it cost his insurer $35K. Luckily his wife had started a new job the week before which provided 100% cover, the week before and he would have been paying 50% of that out of his own pocket.
An over expensive capitalist system that allows insurers to cherry pick and deny service and payment at will is fine when you are young and healthy and can afford insurance. You know, I laughed at a lawyer who deigned to talk down to me when I was collecting my kids from school in Florida. He made the same noises as you are about US healthcare and people should pay for their care and if they can't pay "tough". Yup, I laughed at him 6 months later when he was bleating about being laid off in the knock on effect of 2008 and how would he be able to pay for his healthcare, blah, blah, blah. He was happily snotting on the people underneath him, but he should have taken notice of the fact that sat on his high horse gave him a long way to fall.
The system needs to change, I ain't gonna pay $1500 a month insurance to maybe, perhaps, possibly see a Dr once every couple of months when I retire.
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