What a great read. Very nice find!

This part was enlightening:

It's articles like these I wish we had double-upvote buttons for.

Excellent find and a nice read.


I especially found it great to read because of my circumstances. For most of my "insurance-paying" life, I lived in The Netherlands, and experienced the healthcare system there. And it's exactly as they explain in the article, everyone HAS to be insured, but you can choose between more than 10 different companies... at the same price.

No matter what company you're getting your insurance from, they all charge the same. Then you still get money back relating to your income. Low income = you pay the minimum fee. High income, you pay more.

Then I moved to Belgium. The system here is pretty much the same, except slightly less organised. But the advantage here is you don't wait for care. The hospital was very sorry to apologise to me that I had to wait 2 weeks for an MRI. I told my mom (in The Netherlands) and she laughed. There you wait 2 months at least.

My son got his in 2 hours.

Your point ?

I got mine in one week in the Netherlands...the point is that the waiting time depends on the reason for an MRI.

That I'm happy with our health care...

strange you didn't get that.

That is unless you would lose your job, then you are pretty much f**ked.
Oh and the thing about waiting 2 months for a MRI ? Not a typical case.

You may be lucky, but 50 million people of the USA are not. That is more then 3 times the amount of people who live in my country.

The fact that our health care system currently resembles that of burma in any way, especially when in regards to being screwed if you don't make much money, makes me very UNHAPPY with our health care.

Even though I get taken care of and have a health plan I'm not going to be happy with a system like that.

People in the U.S. with insurance have a 7 in 10 chance of going bankrupt due to medical bills. There are so many ways the insurance companies can screw you over. And God forbid you're dropped by a company, have a pre-existing condition, and have to search for another. Some people with insurance have to drive 100 miles or more to see a doctor who accepts their particular insurance (especially if it's car insurance).

In the US, when I lost my job due to medical reasons, after FMLA/Short term disability ran out, my premiums went from the $20 I paid when I was employed to over $500 a month. Not so easy when you can't work and don't qualify for long term disability. As long as I'm working, the insurance works pretty good, but when I'm not working, I prey I don't need more surgery. Even so, I went to the ER a few months ago, I am working now, and walked away with a $1000 bill, they didn't do any scans or tests, just an IV drip, after a 4 hour wait in the ER waiting room. The insurance just denied the claim. It is on appeal, but it is still scary.

And how long before you got the bill?

No one should ever accuse you limeys of not having a sense of humor.

Exactly. But I meant for non-urgent reasons. Of course if you come in through the ER with a serious head trauma they'll get it done quicker, but with non-urgent stuff they're good at taking forever in Holland to get it done.

Very true.
In America you'll wait for months as well when there's no urgency, unless you own a fortune, then you can skip ahead of people who need it quicker than you.

See that's not true. No one here is denied health care...even if your here illegally.



You may want to call it "a myth"

You had to wait four hours for an IV drop and got $1000 bill?

Funny; I had the exact same ER visit, except without the bill. I'm Canadian; guess I'm just used to those long 4 hour waits. (BTW, it turns out all I had was a severe flu.)

Yep, I had a 7 day long migraine and none of the conventional fixes were working, and the single injection at urgent care a few days earlier hadn't done anything. So I went in, they hooked up an IV and after a few IV drug infusions (over an hour and a half), I went home. $1000. The doctors charges were around $200, the $1000 was from the hospital for the use of the facility and the drugs.