Is US healthcare really this bad?

  • Thread starter Thread starter PhilJ
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co charges with insurance payouts are much higher
back in the day there were no co charges or just a small fee of $5
Now I have copays of $50 or more and deductibles to deal with. I foresee this escalating to help pay for escalating costs.
 
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This year I had an air ambulance ride, one night in cardio ICU and one night on a regular room. Total was approximately $250,000. I paid $1,500 out of pocket, BCBS paid approx $59,000, and the rest was written off. Without insurance I would have been on the hook for the whole 250K.
 
My DD and husband paid 8K out of pocket after insurance for a standard hospital baby delivery. No surgery or extended stay.
 
When my wife had ovarian cancer, any delay could have resulted in her death. Things moved very quickly and at the time of her surgery it was stage 3, and they also found stage 2 uterine cancer. We had good insurance then and we only paid $500.
Now that we’re retired, we pay $1,743/month for our insurance with a $2,000 deductible, then we pay 40% up to $4,000 maximum.
We’re happy with our insurance and with the care we get. The Philadelphia area has excellent health care.
In twenty months we go on Medicare, but from what we know, as long as you buy a Medigap plan, it’s pretty good.
 
The average income in the UK is £24,000 approx $31,000. So an average household income would be $62,000.

$14,000 a year for insurance would represent 22.5% of income. So we’re happy sticking to the 12.5% if that’s what the figure is
 
That is fine with me, just dont tell me your system is better. Of the top 5 killer in the UK your survival rate is the lowest in EU and lower than the US. You better not get
  1. Heart disease
  2. Cancer
  3. Stroke
  4. Lung disease
  5. Liver disease
In the UK cause youre going to die sooner there than elsewhere in the EU and USA.

What is one of the big killers here that you dont have in the UK. Unintentional injuries are the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S. and the leading cause of death for those aged 1–44. This is why we statistically have a 6 month shorter life expectancy than in the UK

BTW if you make 31,000 here in the US and were charged the 12.5% that is only about $3900

But according to Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that Americans spent on average $3,414 a year on health insurance in 2017. This worked out to around 6 percent of all their household’s expenditures.

Our system is just fine. Like I said the government can create a voluntary health care program and people can pay 12.5%, just dont force me to join cause it would be awful.
 
I think you will get the responses from more of the middle upper class. It can vary, but the poorest are always going to be the most hurt. I hear “Medical Debt” is not a commonly used term in most of the developed world.

I can believe things like this happen
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We have a local pharmacist who repeatedly stonewalled me when I asked him how much a certain prescription would cost. It was a legitimate question that I had every right to know the answer to, and he continually refused to tell me. Not that he didn’t know – he just wouldn’t say.

Needless to say, I went to a different pharmacist.

Lack of transparancy regarding pricing, and inability to get straight answers is a serious issue that does contribute to financial insolvency in some medical situations.

I believe our President is trying to work on that.
 
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