Day 20 of the 30-day Blogging Challenge
By Staingirl Elle
By now, most of us are sick of the health care debate raging here in the U.S. I think it’s finally dawned on everyone that something has to be done, even if only for political reasons. Here in America if you work for a company large enough to have some clout in negotiating health insurance rates, you’re golden. And if you are poor enough, you may qualify for programs. The squeeze is in between: the self-employed, or those who work for small businesses.
There is something wrong when: families face foreclosure because they had to borrow money from their home to support an ailing parent; small business owners have to pay over $2,000.00 monthly for one family’s insurance; a retired person on fixed income has to debate whether or not to continue paying for her $800/month insurance; an uninsured individual has to file for bankruptcy to get out from under the debt created when he had cancer.
Well, it appears that we are getting closer to a health care overhaul. But we still have our stumbling blocks, including the public option. People are afraid it will lead to socialized medicine, and take away from their current health care options. Never mind that the insurance companies have been placing limits on us and our doctors for years, and that the public option is merely an alternative (but that’s another topic).
Critics of the major overhaul cite anecdotes of a failed health care system abroad where the elderly are denied care and health care in general is more restrictive. But I have to wonder whether this is true, given that they are the same persons who accused Obama of wanting to create death panels for the elderly. I thought it appropriate to hear from our readers, since I know our Cassidy people hail from Canada and England, among other places. Please write and tell us: What country are you from? What has your experience been? Do you like the health care you currently have? Encourage others you know to write and inform us. We will report back to you in a future post. And thank you for weighing in.
And there are also the people who are uninsurable if they do not have a job.
Americans hear of long wait times to see a doctor in areas with socialized medicine, but I’ve read this explained (in one Newsweek article, I believe) as only applying to elective procedures, not preventative and critical care. People in these areas have expressed disbelief in America’s inability thus far to see that socialized medicine works for people when they need it the most. I am particularly appalled by how we treat our veterans in this country. I hope that is not an indication of what socialized medicine would be like here in the States.
Nice post Elle. If you’ve got some time, fellow Cassidy divas of countries yonder to the US, please enlighten us with your healthcare experiences and opinions.
I’m in Canada and no, our health care system isn’t perfect but I don’t have to worry about needing to mortgage my house should I have an accident or decide to have another baby. A bit of peace of mind, that.
There are long waits for most procedures, elective or otherwise and that is most probably because there is a shortage of general practitioners and specialists (brain drain, anyone?) and an aging population. Emergency care is adequate to excellent depending on the facility, but I expect that’s the same anywhere. There are also private clinics for those who have money (and/or private insurance) and would rather a speedier service. I was able to see a specialist without a GP’s referral by calling a private clinic. Paid $150 versus nothing for the visit but got an appointment within 48 hours and one hour of the doc’s time, as opposed to eight minutes. To give you an example of a long wait with GPs, mine averages a two-month waiting list for an appointment. She works in a university clinic and provides the staff with only two months of her schedule at a time so they can never give you an appointment far in advance. Those two months fill up FAST. The fact that she doesn’t work there full-time doesn’t help. I gave my name in July for an appointment and was told to expect a call in November. They called me in mid-October and gave me an appointment for a month later. I wasn’t looking for critical care, just a regular annual visit to review my meds and get a referral to a specialist in the system. If I had been, I would have gone to any of the three medical clinics near my house and waited two to four hours to see a doctor I’ve never seen before. That’s where I went a couple of times when I had conjunctivitis. I’ve been seeing my GP (aka family doctor) for about 14 years now; she’s excellent. Trying to find a new one would be a major PITA.
Honestly, I’m thankful for the system we have. Yes, we pay a lot of income tax but in exchange, everyone has access to basic health care. Anything else doesn’t seem very civilized or humane to me.
Thank you, Daydreaming David, for taking the time to give us a good idea of how the medical system works in Canada!!! I’m curious to know what percentage of your gross pay you actually pay for medical (what do you call it?). I agree with you, we all should be able to get basic medical care.
I know we’re overtaxed. Canada is one of the most taxed countries in the world. I’ll look up those percentages for you. You might fall off your chair, warning you now.
Thanks Daydreaming David, but please don’t spend a lot of time. I did find some information on Wikipedia and I see like here, and probably everywhere, there are many factors involved, with having some provinces requiring employees to pay into a healthcare fund (for guaranteed benefits), having prescription insurance, taxes for healthcare, and more. I think my question was very naive.
Wow, that was informative, but now i have a ton more questions.
The problem in the U.S. is that the majority of us have health care, and access is pretty good. Depending on specialties, doctors for regular checkups are available within days or months. But more importantly, those same doctors (or their partner, or whomever covers for them) are available that same day or the next for emergency care. So you are able to see your cardio, your gp, your pediatrician, if needed fairly quickly.
The problem is that health care here is excessively expensive. Not so much the family practitioner or the pediatrician, but the specialists and the hospital care. If you do not have insurance it is brutally expensive. And so is our insurance, which is why the small businesses and individuals who are self-employed or unemployed don’thave it. If you have an emergency then it can be financially devastating.
I forgot to mention, DD, that the bigger employers cover a large percentage of the cost of the insurance. So the insurance itself is a lot more expensive than what I emailed you. I’m not sure of the exact percentage off the top of my head, but I want to say somewhere around the 40-50% range, and I think that varies by company. But those are group rates which tend to be even less expensive than individual policies.
Kaye
I guess that’s the main difference with Canada and the US. Emergency care here is covered for everyone, employed or not. I fainted on my way to work years ago and the ambulance brought me to the hospital. They did a battery of tests including a CAT scan; I saw a couple of specialists and stayed overnight, IIRC. The only thing I had to pay was the ambulance ride and it cost $75 which I thought was exorbitant at the time. I remember asking them, why didn’t you just call a taxi? The insurance I had with my employer reimbursed me for the ambulance ride.
Most medium-sized to large employers offer group insurance that covers additional services (e.g. nutritionist, massage therapist, chiro, naturopath, etc.), prescriptions and dental. Eye care is rarely covered. If you’re self-employed and want additional health insurance, it’s not cheap. However, maternity leave is available in all provinces, I believe. In Quebec, off the top of my head, it’s 6 months mat leave with full pay and an additional 3 to 6 with partial pay for parental leave (that can be taken by either parent). Your employer has to allow it and you have the same job when you come back. This is available to self-employed workers as well.
Canada’s maternity care is a lot better than the States’. In some companies, full pay is only given for recovery time (6 – 8 weeks) and that depends on how much sick leave has been accrued. The rest would have to be taken as a percentage of full pay on disability if the employee bought disability insurance. It varies from company to company. Other companies offer better maternity benefits. They do have to allow a certain amount of leave and guarantee the employee’s job on return. Nutritionists and probably many naturopath services are usually not covered.
If someone in Canada was in a bad car accident with severe head trauma, what portion would be considered emergency and what portion would the person have to pay out of pocket if they didn’t have additional insurance? For instance, would rehabilitation services be covered under the emergency umbrella too?
Medical services are handled by province. Here in Quebec, whatever is deemed medically necessary is covered. Here is a page that gives you a synopsis of what’s covered in the province of Quebec: http://www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca/en/citoyens/assurancemaladie/serv_couv_queb/serv_med_sc.shtml
I had done the “fancy” link thing and then lost the whole connection to your site when I pressed “submit comment”; now, I’m too lazy to try again. Sorry.
Forgot to say that rehab services in this context would be covered in full.
Wow, it’s interesting to see the differences and some similarities. Kaye, the amount of insurance premiums covered by employers varies. They can cover up to 100%. My husband did. He currently has older employees that are on Medicare so it’s not an issue. Maternity care used to be fully covered in most plans, but recently when we were shopping for new plans, I found that you had to purchase a rider. And giving birth here is very expensive. Only companies with over 50 employees have to provide maternity leave, and I believe there is no requirement of payment during that time, just that the same or similar job be provided upon return.
Thanks for the info.
Finally got around to it! I’ll enlighten you to the British National Health Service.
Set up in 1948 the NHS is the largest public funded health care service. It aims to provide good healthcare to all regardless of wealth. It is completely free. Sounds good doesn’t it? But there are flaws and problems. We all pay National Insurance tax out of our wages to pay for it. You can choose to pay for private health care but you still pay the NI contributions regardless.
All foreign tourists/workers/immigrants can have treatment on the NHS for free as soon as they set foot on our soil. On the one had it is comforting to know that you dont have to worry about paying for anything and that you are entitled to any care, even expensive long term care. The problems arise from too many people needing the service and not enough money generated to deal with it all. This can lead to long waiting lists, lower quality of care, and a zip code lottery whereby each local authority has its own budget and your care can depend on whereabouts in Britain you actually live and what that particular authority is willing to pay for.
I think you may be appalled at some of the quality of care. There are very long waiting lists, even for cancer sufferers and women only get screened for breast cancer from age 50 every 3 years! My father-in-law paid for us all to have private health care but it cana be a bit of a con. For instance, you see a specialist quickly enough, but then they tell you it would be better to have you operation on the NHS (they dont want to pay up for some ops) so you wonder why you’re paying money into it. If you’re rich you can get the best care but most people can only afford basic private care which has many loopholes. In the current recession we can no longer pay for the private so rely on the NHS.
The problem is too many Eurpoeans come here to get the free health care. Too many British citizens do not/will not work (the benefit system is too cushy) so they don’t contribute but take the free health care. They system is cracking up which is a shame as the basic principles are good.
In mainland Europe most countries have private health care. I think Germany and Austria have some system like ours. British citizens carry a free European Health Insurance card so that if we go abroad on holiday we can get free health care if needed.
Hope this has been useful to you.
Thanks British Fan!!! I see what you mean about the system being abused by foreigners and people not willing to work. It’s a little scary to see how our health care system will change over here. Even with insurance, sometimes people don’t get the care they need over here because insurance companies won’t pay. Recently, my insurance costs are not only going up 7%, but my deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums have all doubled!!! Still, at this point I’ll be happy if I can have the same level of care I’ve had in the past. We have a lot of doctors/hospitals over here too though that order unnecessary things in my opinion so that drives up costs too.
This is great information and much appreciated!! What about dental, corrective eye care, and prescriptions? Also, do you know what percentage of wages go toward NHS? Does the percentage depend on income level?
Yes, the contributions are based on income. Not sure of the actual percentage though. There is a lower earning limit,LE, an Earnings Threashold, ET (LOL!) and an Upper Earnings Limit, UEL. If you work part-time and earn below the LE you dont have to pay. Your employer usually deducts this from your wages and the amount can fluctuate with inflation I think. NI contributions also pay unemployment benefit as well as health care. Prescriptions are free to children, pensioners and those who are unemployed or on sickness/disability. The rest of us have to pay. Wales, Scotland and Ireland (part of the UK) have free prescriptions but we still pay. I have two different medicines I take so I have to pay the fee twice. They will only give you 1 or 2 mths supply so you have to pay each time you re-order. If I were a lazy *ss who refused to work I could get free eye care, dental and medicines! (Am I bitter?!) Well, actually only if hubby were a lazy *ss too!
Yes, we have National Health dentists but dentistry is also in crisis. There are not enough NH dentists and many leave and go private for more money. It is very hard to get a National Health dentist now. I have been private for several years because my practice lost all its NH dentists. I could put my name on a list. At the moment I dont go as often as I should, the price of a check up and polish is extortionate, but there is some work I would like done if I can afford it.
Dentists and opticians (eye care) are free for children and students. Opticians do not come under the National Health. You have to pay for it and there are many to choose from. Glasses and contacts are very expensive, if you want the nice ones!
Thanks for taking the time to enlighten us British Fan!!!