Hi
@Thinx
The cost of heathcare is a hot topic. I am from the U.S.A. and no, we do not have the equivlent of the N.H.S. for the general population.
Here is a rough outline:
If you are poor, and that is very, very poor, you can apply for Medicaid. Medicaid is medical program paid for and administered by the state you live in, with subsidies and grants given to each state by the federal government. Therefore, each state has it's own rules regarding who qualifies for coverage and the benefits recieved. This program and it's eldercare cousin, Medicare is the closest thing the U.S. has to the N.H.S.
Medicare is for retirees reciveing Social Security benefits. Very roughly S.S. is a federally administered eldercare safety net. Anyone recieving a paycheck in the U.S. pays into the program with a contribution taken from every check. Medicare is a complex subject all by its self. But one is not eligible until ine takes Social Security beginning at age 62. (I think it's 62)
For everyone else there is private health insurence and paying out of pocket. And this is where the whole thing falls apart. The insurence is rediculously expensive and so most people recieve insurence coverage through work. Their employer pays a portion of coverage and the remainder is deducted from your pay check.
If you do not work you pay for your insurence all on your own. And it gets crazy! Crazy, stupid expensive.
Recently my husband and I went shopping for private insurence. Due to more stupid regulations one find their insurence from state exchanges. Our state is Colorado. We were graciously offered "low cost" insurence due to our low income. For this exercise we reported our income (for 2 people) as $22,000 per year.
The "low cost" insurence offered to us was $24,000 per year.
. Keep in mind, insurence only lowers your costs but you still pay out of pocket for a portion of your actual doctors visits, proceedures and medications.
Now Colorado might allow us to sign up for Medicare but the income threshold is just over $23,000 per year. and our actual income is closer to $24,000 per year.
Thankfully, we really are largely healthy. Aside from my recent pinched nerve and a brief brush with Omicron, we have had no complaints.
Out of pocket medical expenses are even more complex. Sadly we do not have a universal set of stadards of care or costs. And it is the wild, wild west. Since most folk have insurence, which is supposed to lower costs and negotiate lower costs for the insured, actual costs for the uninsured are stupidly high in most cases.
I don't have any real costs to show you because I haven't been to the doctor. But one teeny tiny example of how bizarre it is comes from my son. He was not insured when he reported this to me. He went to the doctor for an unpper respitory infection. The doctor charged him $200 bucks for the 15 minute office visit. He then had his precriptions filled at a Walgreens pharmacy. They charged him $40 for an antibiotic and $90 for an albuterol inhaler. But, unknown to him (and he didn't ask mom) he could have had both precriptions filled at Walmart for a total of $8.00.
Are you shocked, dismayed or outraged?
When I was working I paid $350 per month for insurence to cover both myself and my son. This was about 10 years ago. Anway, when I broke my leg I still had to cover part of the medical costs as some things weren't covered by insurence. My out of pocket expenses were about $2,000.
