Insurance is SO Expensive!

[highlans]

Originally Posted by Janet

Mine includes prescriptions, no dental or vision. We are with Anthem. I guess that's not really a bad price, it's just..I don't make that much to begin with...just over $10,000. It was the convenience of being off with the boy when he was younger and being home with him in the summer time.

Is that per month or year?

[Marilyn]

Mine includes prescription drugs, too, and they are really cheap. Usually $2 or $3 to fill a prescription. That's with generics. If you go with the name brand I think it's like $25.

[Janet]

Originally Posted by highlans

Is that per month or year?

That is my yearly salary. I know it's not much, but it's great insurance and it gave me the opportunity to stay home and raise my son. My husband makes considerably more, but his insurance totally sucks so he gets what the company pays for. We don't pay for his insurance.

This coming school year will be his last and then he will graduate. Maybe I'll try and look for something that pays more then..I'll just have to wait and see.


Marilyn, 2 of my meds are only $20, and the other two are only $4.00. I'm not complaining about that at all.

[highlans]

[QUOTE=Janet;67226]That is my yearly salary. I know it's not much, but it's great insurance and it gave me the opportunity to stay home and raise my son. My husband makes considerably more, but his insurance totally sucks so he gets what the company pays for. We don't pay for his insurance.



When I was working I always had low paid jobs so I could be at home when the children were not at school I was lucky to be able to do that. I am now a stay at home Nana to my two grandchildren so my daughter can work to pay there mortgage. We pay a national insurance a percentage of wages for our health care on hubby's wage it works out about 400 uk pounds per month. We have long waiting lists for hospital but so far we have never had problems with this. But more and more people are paying private.

[Marilyn]

Originally Posted by highlans

We pay a national insurance a percentage of wages for our health care on hubby's wage it works out about 400 uk pounds per month. We have long waiting lists for hospital but so far we have never had problems with this. But more and more people are paying private.

Wow, 400 Brittish pounds per month is a lot. That's $782 US. That's $9,384 US per year!! And we are being told that you have low cost national healthcare. Do you pay anything at all when you go to the doctor or hospital?? We have lower annual premiums for our private insurance, but it pays about 60 to 80% of the bill and we pay the rest. Sometimes emergency care and some tests are covered at 100%. After our deductable of course.

[Janet]

This is really interesting, I can't wait to hear more.

[highlans]

Originally Posted by Marilyn

Wow, 400 Brittish pounds per month is a lot. That's $782 US. That's $9,384 US per year!! And we are being told that you have low cost national healthcare. Do you pay anything at all when you go to the doctor or hospital?? We have lower annual premiums for our private insurance, but it pays about 60 to 80% of the bill and we pay the rest. Sometimes emergency care and some tests are covered at 100%. After our deductable of course.

No we do not have to pay the doctor or hospital, if we get a prescription from the dr for drugs then we pay 7 pounds per item no matter what the cost of drugs are.

We used to get dental care under the national health but now more and more dentists are going private so we now pay for that which is expensive, at the moment I am looking in to insurance for that.

400 pound is on my husbands earnings so the more you earn the more you pay. That also will give a small pension at 65 not sure what that is at the moment but do not think any more than 100 pounds per week.

People do complain about our hospitals and doctors but do date I have always been happy with the care provided.

[Marilyn]

Actually, for reasonably healthy middle aged people, I think we probably pay less for healthcare in the US than you do in the UK. If we have some type of minor surgery or something during the year, we probably pay about the same after our deductables and copays. And we don't have the waits that we hear you do to see a doctor or have an operation.

I need carpal tunnel surgery, according to my doctors. If I call for an appointment tomorrow, I will probably get to see a very qualified surgeon of my choosing within a couple of weeks, and the surgery can probably be scheduled within a few days of seeing the doctor. If I use a doctor that is "in network" (on contract with my insurance carrier) the cost will not be very much at all.

If you needed carpal tunnel surgery, what could you expect to have happen in the UK?

By the way, I may actually make that phone call tomorrow just to see how it goes and report back on this thread. We'll see if the senerio described above is actually accurate, and what the cost actually is.

This is very interesting. Thank you for replying, Highlans!! It is wonderful to actually get to communicate with someone who is living with Nationalized Healthcare since they are talking about putting us on a similiar system.

[highlans]

Not sure about carpel surgery but an example I can give is hubby had back pains so went to the GP, was then sent to the hospital consultant for that appointment he waited two months, they decided he needed a hip replacement and that was another two months before there was a bed for him. So from seeing the GP to haveing the opp was around four months. That is good going my sister in law waited 6 months to have hers done. We now have a system that you can see if there is another hospital around the country that can fit you in sooner but think I would rather be local and near family.