The harrisons

Hi,
Can anyone advise us about medical and dental insurance. I need repeat prescriptions for ongoing medical problem and I would also appreciate feedback on a dental pre-payment plan.
Can anyone help?
Paula

lardyl

when I asked my dentist a couple of weeks ago, about dental insurance, as opposed to pre-payment, he advised against it. but he is good and not too expensive, unlike the DB5 driving city dentists.....
we had denplan in the UK (as the dentist turned to the dark side about a year before we left) and both adults made it into the top (cheap) grade - me just with my "acid mouth" (how's about that for lining yourself up!!??) with more amalgam in there than I care to discuss and MrsL with one filling and an "alkali mouth" - she just spits fire instead.....LOL
So we are not going to require masses of treatment but are not perfect.

As far as medical, I'd advise hubby to ask at work as there are good (cheaper) group schemes for that sort of employer.

Repeat scrips.....mmm....doubt you qualify for the community (or whatever) card ......but have you got PR? If so then the scrips should be subsidised.....???

BEVS

My husbands repeat prescription for his under-active thyroid is $10 bucks every 3 months and $3 for the tablets.

Good value for money to keep husband alert & awake , although to listen to his heartbeat one might wonder if he wasn't, in fact , in a state of suspended animation.

mr_hello

Dental insurance essentially doesn't exist here. What little there is is expensive, hard to find, and offers very minimal coverage--to the point where it is usually cheaper to not purchase it.

Moreover, the cost of dentistry here is *very* high. For acceptable quality work, expect to pay about $400 per filling, and a root canal will start at about five thousand.

I, like many others, have found it to be much more cost effective to make a trip to Bangkok for anything but pressing emergencies. Even with the airfare and accommodation on top of the medical bills, we have consistently saved money over sourcing locally. And you get a fun trip out of the deal too!

Justcol

The issue with some medical insurance policies is that they will no
cover you for the best available treatments or medication.
If you develop a serious illness you need to know that you will get the best
most effective treatment their is. some companies offer cheaper alternatives.
as with anything you get what you pay for.
This has been show to us this week, our agent (a personal friend) has told us
that treatment a family member needs would not have been covered on
certain other policies and when time is of the essence you dont want to
be thinking about financial matters.
not sure about dentists but fillings range from $250 to $900 at our local practice

luvwelly

RUBBISH Root canals do not start at 5000 dollars......and 200 dollars for a filling is more accurate as well.......going abroad for dental treatment is very risky and not something to be undertaken lightly.
I agree it is not worth purchasing insurance for dental though..better to save money and do pay as you go since in an accident ACC will cover you.
Also dentistry in rural NZ and even in Wellington is much cheaper than in Auckland CBD.

mr_hello

My my, nice job of shouting me down...

$200 will get you a filling at a certain chain of dental clinics in Auckland, but the quality of the work is utterly appalling. Read as, the $200 you save is simply saving up for your next visit that you *will* need.

What I said was that fillings were around $400 for acceptable quality work.

As for travelling overseas, I'm sorry but automatically making blanket statements as "risky" reek of racism. What is risky about going to a country with a highly organized infrastructure to handle medical tourists? What is risky about getting dental work done by practitioners with a PhD from highly reputable schools in the USA? What is risky about going to a clinic that does more procedures per year than most here do in the course of their practicing career?

The only thing that's left is that it's risky because the dentist is Thai...?


Don't yell at me again. I don't appreciate it.

BEVS

My husbands root canal work, covering 3 visits , was $800 in total. This was for Nelson which is not exactly a cheap place to live & the work was not sub-standard.

Kiwiprincess

I have to disagree regarding the cost of dental work (although I don't disagree that it's a lot!)

I paid $1200 for my root canal in Wellington. Actually less than that because I got a discount. I shopped around a bit (ie I rang dentists and asked how much it would cost) and it was roughly the same price.

Fillings vary. I think the four I got were just less than $200 (between $150 to $200 depending on what they were).

Admittedly that's at a dentist. An oral surgeon for the root canal would have been more.

Kija

$400!!! It's cheaper to have all my teeth pulled out before I get there

lardyl

Only filling I have had in NZ was from a Saffer dentist with a very good reputation in their ex-Pat community (recommended by a GP friend and several other folks) and that work cost less than the check-up, scale (and no polish.....which I found rather odd...) at $120. The work seemed fine and it included a pre-fill x-ray to check all was well.

The comment I made about some (city) dentists in NZ driving new aston martins is not far off the mark and that profession has a reputation amongst Kiwis for being expensive, I know several who have done the holiday in Thailand to get bridging or root canal work done.

Us Brits have a reputation for not caring too much about our teeth which I suppose if you compare to the attitude of most Yanks (who like white straight teeth and the "perfection" of a young boday as opposed to us Europeans who can live with growing old gracefully - as they alleged on "the panel" this afternoon) is probably well deserved........

I have been told by a couple of people that in the old days in Durham an 18th birthday present was often to go to the dentist to have all your teeth removed to reduce the running costs in later life I suppose.......

Persephone

I'd heard that that was widespread throughout England, being a Durham lass I have to defend the county...

luvwelly

http://www.gdc-uk.org/NR/rdonlyres/F...lcareFINAL.pdf
If a dentist in the UK harms you, you can complain to the General Dental Council and after investigation the dentist can be struck off...ditto NZ equivalent....I personally think it would be risky to try to seek similar redress in a country such as Thailand and it would also be doubly difficult because of the language barrier....I really don't think the perceived savings are worth the risk....there is nothing racist in my view at all...if anything it is a consumer protection argument. I tend to feel happier trying to assert my rights in democracies, you may well feel differently.

lardyl

nowt wrong with Durham lasses......hinny......

mr_hello

I'd have to agree, but if you think that statement applies to NZ, well...
<snipped by mod> My story is that both myself and my (Kiwi) partner have had numerous expensive and exceptionally poor experiences here. She even ended up in hospital over a botched wisdom tooth extraction with a blood infection.

While what you say about having some sort of recourse is true in that the mechanism exists, good luck accessing it. Moreover, even if you are successful in getting some dentist struck off, that doesn't rewind the clock on your botched dentistry. Certainly she never had any recourse.

So, a couple of years ago based on the advice of numerous people (both expats and Kiwis, and even editorial articles in The Listener) we decided to try going to Thailand instead.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; unless it's an emergency, I will NEVER even consider going to a dentist here over a quality practice in Thailand. The level of quality is not even comparable, and I have come out ahead financially every time.

And while I'm at it...

If a person is from the UK in NZ, they have already "gone abroad". So, seeing a dentist here would thus be equally risky as seeing one anywhere else in terms of your "don't go abroad" arguments, would it not?

The bottom line is this; the original poster asked for opinions, I gave mine, others gave theirs, <snipped by mod.>