Martlet
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,837
- Location
- Near St Louis, MO
People in the US pay for their treatment and can demand specific tests to validate their condition. In the UK, the NHS aren't very forthcoming in helping us investigate our bodies and even if we do pay for private tests, not all are available and many cannot afford it. My wife pays over 100 ($163) per month towards her national insurance (NHS costs) and we pay them whether we see a doctor 100 times a year or never! These costs are compulsory.
Sorry, but I can't leave that unanswered.
Health care in the USA is mostly paid for by employer-provided health insurance and the insurers dictate what tests/treatment can be had. If a person loses their job, then they lose their health care and very, very few can afford to pay for treatment out of their own pockets. Even with health insurance, health care costs are the single largest cause of personal bankruptcy, because people have deductible amounts before insurance kicks in, then have to pay a percentage of their own costs and often, there is a limit to the amount insurers will pay over a lifetime.
My husband lost his job just over two years ago. Six months later, our company-provided health insurance ended but we are among the fortunate ones because, as retired military, my husband is insured under a military scheme called Tricare - and as his spouse, so am I. But that doesn't entitle us to whatever tests we want. For starters, we have to pay for the first $300 of costs per benefit year, then have a co-pay of $3 per script (which is much lower than most) on our drugs, and then have to pay 20% of all doctor visits, tests and procedures, and can only have medically proven tests and treatment.
When my husband reaches 65 later this year, in addition to all that, he will need to register for Medicare and will have to pay $100 a month on top of all the above! No free prescriptions for OAPs, as in the UK!
And still we are among the lucky ones. 46 million Americans have no health insurance at all and these can often afford no medical treatment, so they go to casualty departments just so they can be stabilised, but receive no follow-up care.
Then you mention the $163 per month. For the $163, British people receive unemployment benefits, disability allowances, retirement pension AND health care. Working Americans also have a compulsory tax called Social Security but this does not provide for health care. This tax is charged at a rate of something just over 12% of taxable income, generally split between employer and employee. Here in Missouri, median income was just under $40,000 last year, so you can work it out what they have to pay, although most people here are lucky if they make half of that.
So, the bottom line is that British people get a lot more bang for their buck while the vast majority of Americans have their health care options dictated by whoever insures them... if they have health insurance.