Free and universal health care is not exactly what it sounds like. In Australia you may well pay for certain prescribed drugs, but at minimal cost. I pay over $5 for each of my seven medications per month. But around October I reached the pensioner ceiling, and henceforth, my medications were free to me until January this year. Non pensioners pay about $25 per prescription. There is also a higher ceiling level for people who pay the $25 maximum.
In England when I needed one drug because my chemist screwed up, it cost me £10, but only because I insisted on the brand name drug I knew. The medical appointment cost me nothing.
My tenant Kosov after been bitten by a dog when crossing a road, paid nothing for a tetanus vaccination. While it wasn't a claim, overseas students are compelled to have private health insurance, as they are not Australian permanent residents..
New Zealand also has public health care, even though it does not seem to appear on this map.
It took me a while to understand the US health care system, and correct me if I am wrong, but it seems your life will be saved after an emergency situation. If you don't have health insurance, and say for a car crash, you will get care until you are able to go home. But after that, you are on your own so far as recovery goes. So, you will receive free care, until you are kind of ok. Buy your own medications near the exit door at extortionate prices compared to the rest of the world.
Most of you in the US who are reading this will have good private health insurance, so not so much of an issue, but it certainly is for many citizens in the US.
PS I don't actually understand the US medical system, just kind of what happens in an emergency.
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The emergency care only applies to stabilizing the patient. After that, nothing unless they have insurance. I have Medicare plus a supplemental and a prescription insurance. Monthly premiums, no copays.
ReplyDeleteI had a hip replacement plus ten weeks of physical therapy , 4 before, 6 after. Billed zero.
Boud, I can't argue with that, and your hip replacement done in a timely manner, I guess attributed to the extra you pay.
DeleteOne of the reasons that I feel fortunate to be a UK citizen.
ReplyDeleteMy thyroid condition was diagnosed before I became a pensioner but, because it was deemed that I required medication for the remainder of my life, I received free prescriptions from that moment on.
There you go JayCee, but I have a feeling in England prescriptions are usually free to all. No doubt you will correct me about that if I am wrong. What would have paid if you were not a pensioner?
DeleteNot free here unless you qualify for an exemption, as I did. The last time I checked it was around £3 to £4 per item for the standard charge on the NHS. Not sure if that has changed though.
DeleteMost of our prescriptions are free.
ReplyDeleteJackie, so why do so many Canadians whinge about the country's health care system?
DeleteI think we have the best health system in the world, Of course our taxes pay for it but doctors
ReplyDeleteWe do contribute through the Medicare level and general taxes, but the amount is minor compared what average US citizens pay for health care and drugs.
Deletenobody understands the US health system. Always there are middle companies, insurers and those working for them paid to try to nix paying out a claim. Then, for 65 and older, or is it 67 now--medicare, but it comes with monthly premiums and copays, unless you have an advantage plan that pays out the monthly premiums and copays. If you're poor or disabled and can qualify, you get medicaid, which means covered procedures are free. Usually you have to be quite poor to qualify for medicaid although coverage was expanded during the covid years. The best coverage is for government workers. They get coverage after they retire also and I think the medical system loves to see a government worker coming through the door due to their coverage. The reason is the hospital/doctor systems don't get reimbursed much by medicare or medicaid but do for state insurance and many private insurers. It can be hard around here to find providers that take medicare.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, aside for your last sentence about finding providers, you are not in such a bad situation so far as health care goes?
DeleteThe WA govt is trying to take over the private hospitals. It has already turned one very good private hospital into a public hospital. It is the govt of jealousy, it can't stand people who've bettered themselves.
ReplyDeleteAussiebel, here our state government has had to take over failing private hospitals. Are you sure your private hospitals are in a sound financial position?
DeleteSt John of God has two hospitals catholic run and they're the best private hospitals where everyone wants to go. You need insurance to afford it so they're making money.
DeleteI am so very glad I don't live in a red area. Or anywhere that gets the icy snowy winters and regular hurricanes/tornados.
ReplyDeleteI do wish our unthinking government would reinstate the many rural hospitals they closed over the years and fund them properly.
River, for minor care, small rural hospitals are great, but expensive to run. For anything like childbirth and above, large regional public hospitals with specialist expertise is the way to go.
DeleteThe problem with insurance is that they determine hospitalizations. When Tim had his stroke. He was in an emergency room for three days because there was no beds at the hospital he needed to be transfered to. The hospital he was at could not give him a bed because had they done so. Insurance would not have paid for the transfer to the specialized hospital. It is inhumane, really.
ReplyDeleteDebby, here strokes, heart issues and skin cancers have high priority. Immediate rehab for stroke patients is a high priority. And for the first two, private or public, each will be as good as each other. For serious matters, our public system is very good. Wait list for knee surgery, you will wait a while.
DeleteThat is ridiculous Debby. I don't think that there is a perfect system anywhere. Where I live, the public system is quite broken in terms of everyday health care - my father now has stage 4 prostate cancer despite some very red flag symptoms - because where he lives, there are only locums available and only sporadically. So he did what any old bloke would do and never got a follow up on something quite concerning, all blood tests taken seemed to miss highlighting PSA, he often went to other town's doctors when there was none and so there was never any follow through. It was finally diagnosed after he had been complaining of leg pain for 8 months and they kept saying "too old, must be hips" so he finally went "okay, if its hips go to a hip specialist" and the scan taken for a non-public new hip highlighted the tumours in his bones. So far his treatment has cost him upwards of $7,000 because he does have private health cover and wasn't prepared to wait. The hip specialist on the public system he would be getting his initial consult in May this year.
ReplyDeleteJeanie, you are right. No system is perfect, and the result for your father is more than just poor. I can only say you are much more advantaged if you live a large city and have access to great and very large public hospitals. Any doctor should have have noted an elevated PSA number and asked the patient to return. Why did this not happen, in spite of locums?
DeleteIf your father had private health insurance, he could have gone to public hospital as a private patient where his health fund would be charged and he would be treated as a private patient, at no cost to him.
Yes, you'll get cared for in the U.S. if you're in an accident, but then you're hounded by bill collectors for the rest of your life. Why is that? Because here in the United States, the free-market system is practically a secular religion, the demonic threat of socialism always something to be wary of (these aren't my sentiments, mind you, but they are for many of my countrymen.) Add into this mix money's influence on politics (according to the Supreme Court, corporations are people, too.) Any time any type of health care is proposed, no matter how mild, there's then much lobbying of Congress by Big Health, to make sure such a proposal is shot down, along with a PR blitz that scares the hell out of people with dire warnings of long lines and rationing.
ReplyDeleteKirk, yes, the private health system in your country has almost become too big to fail, which makes substantial change very difficult. Governments just pick up the pieces for the very poor by throwing money at the private health system.
DeleteRather complex to understand the medical systems in various countries including ourown, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I make no pretence about understanding our system, beyond for serious matters, our public system is quite good, and the poorest are looked after reasonably well.
DeleteSadly I can't say that the UK system is in the best of form, though the NHS gives an absolute brilliant service. But the hospitals get overfull than there is not enough beds and newly arrived patients are often parked in corridors for very long period of times. But it is a precious free gift well worth fighting for. As for waiting lists goodness knows what will happen.
ReplyDeleteThelma, I think every country that has a decent public health system has issues, but they seem to be far superior to the red bits in the map above.
DeleteEmergency treatment is generally good. Problems arise when passing information between different disciplines as the administration is poor. Hard-working admin staff get the rough edge of frustrated patients' tongues and it's not their fault.
ReplyDeleteI have only lived for long periods in three countries - Australia, UK and Israel. All had excellent health care systems.
ReplyDeleteIf we were visiting countries without universal health care, it would be for a short stay only and I would take out good insurance before leaving home.
I could write a book about how health care in the US is paid for or not paid for. Providing health care is a profitable business. Health insurance companies make money by avoiding paying for care. Our drug prices are among the highest in the world. If you are uninsured, the hospital will stabilize you, but treatment beyond that is up to the hospital, and then they will bill you and spend years trying to collect. The system is a mess, and no one has the strength to say no-more.
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