obs the freaking wacky one wrote:Insurance here pretty much sucks, which is why our government is fighting over a new plan. A ton of people in the states have no healthcare at all and are in need. I know of a ton of doctors who won't see patients without insurance, and won't take straight cash. A lot of docs are scared about liability seeing as how US peeps are sue-happy. There was a story in the Dallas paper recently about a guy who bled to death waiting at one of our ghetto hospitals for treatment for a gunshot wound (that particular hospital gets a lot of those) because there are so many people waiting there. That hospital is one of the only ones around that will treat you (eventually) without insurance because it gets government funding. The nicer ones usually will find a way not to treat you without insurance. It's all very smarmy. I like that word:) Anyways, yes, me and mine do have insurance through my job, since hubs job doesn't offer it (they don't have to---employers usually get a choice if they don't have x number of employees or make x amount of money per year, etc) so I carry the weight of that. For the whole fam to be insured I pay around 500 bucks a month, around 250 each paycheck----and keep in mind this is a GOOD deal lol. We have everything---medical, vision and dental. We still have a deductible we have to meet before insurance pays. We also still have copays to pay after that. The medical field makes money dudes. Even though I'm insured for example, I still have to pay $600 to the doctor for delivery of a baby BEFOREHAND, then I'll pay around a grand to the hospital after the delivery because insurance will only pay 80 percent. I'll also have to pay around 500-700 to the anese-whatever dude that puts my magic epidural thing in. So yeah---even insured it's expensive. I'd hate to think what it would cost without all this. Of course, there is my sister in law and brother in law, who are on some form of welfare I think, and they don't pay anything at all. Sort of makes you resentful lol.
I agree about medical costs being large, but in the US it is ridiculous. I may have related this already, but a customer of mine was in the US for three weeks, and got sick. It cost her $400 to see the doctor, and $600 for 2 puffers for her chest infection. Now, fair's fair, but that is a ridiculous amount of money.
Even before our government kicks in a co-payment to the doctor, here is costs only $50 for a standard consultation. On top of that, the two drugs she bought were Seretide and Ventolin. In Australia, you can buy Ventolin without a prescription for $10, and with a script, the seretide costs the customer a maximum of $32 (govt covers some cost), or for fully subsidised patients, the government pays $56.
So, ignoring exchange rates (which work in our favour anyway), she got "ripped off" about $800 just be having her health looked after in the US. That is just ridiculous, and it opened my eyes to why a lot of people hate drug companies.
Ally_Cat wrote:Pharmer- I was 12 when I read Goblet of Fire - it took me 4 days with interuptions from school, homework, and family stuff. If she is around that age or older I don't think she'll have a problem, especially if she like the first three. Personally, I love book 3, but I think book 4 is when the series hits a whole new level of addicting.
She's 7.
Your views on the health care system in the US are quite insightful - the Australia system is one that works, but only here. The UK has a similar system, but it is falling apart (in comparison). Why? Population size. Australia is small, so we've got a more manageable budget. I'd shudder to think of the costs in the US.
jasmine chicky babse (as her facebook calls her wrote:ive always chosen the highest insurance available(they have them in categories with each diff insurance company, the more own risk you want, the lower the insurance is). Anyway. around here you can get any insurance you want, -until- you get something. LIke sid, with his diabetes, if he wanted a diff insurance now, they could refuse him. but since we already have the highest one, they cant. so they have to pay..for everything. and i even made them pay some stuff they usually dont pay. the lill paperthingies you use for measuting your bloodsugar are pretty expensive, ariund 65 euro for a lill jar. Especially when we didnt rerally knew how his sugar reacted , we used those a lot. normally they only pay them when you have typ1, not type 2. but i told them that sid was on the border of type 1(which is true) and if he cant measure at home, his sugar would be to wild, and eventually he would have type 1, and theywould have to pay them anyway. took me long enough, filling in forms and calling many many times. but they pay those now. yeah, i can nag...really really nag. *grin*
Yet again, in Australia, those are not as expensive, but it's artificial. Unlike the drugs I mentioned above, the cost you mention for Blood Glucose Meter Electrodes is similar, but here there is a charity called Diabetes Australia. They have a contract to supply them at drastically reduce prices ($14 is the highest, free for pensioners who have had more than 60 scripts in a year). They are pretty efficient at raising money to cover the costs of these, so it's working OK for now (so long as we are applying this to australia's population).
As you can see, Australia is lucky to have a western lifestyle with a small population - it's a good mix of quality of life vs costs.
Oh, also, Jasmine and Obs mentioned my mums age. She's 51, and I'm 30, not the oldest (my brother in 34). His birthday is before hers.