Elvira

I so wish I had found this forum sooner! Moving here is pretty dramatic, and I come here for a bit of banter with some fellow Brits - not forgetting the wonderful Leslie (from Texas) and Sue Willmore (up in British Columbia). The site is good for letting off steam every now and again too...

Have you visited The Lounge yet?

And then there's Take it Outside... :scared:

Enjoy!

BritGuyTN

have you wondered what that deduction in you salary called medicare is?

essentially it is healthcare for when you are either retired or destitute and bizarrely enough, once combined with tyhe social security salary deduction it works out pretty much the same as national insurance in the UK

I personally resent having to pay effectively twice for something that I can only benefit from one element of.

and also, your employer is paying a shit ton of that healthcare premium.

jen_andreson

Elvira, no, I haven't checked out the other areas but I will do so. Thanks for directing me to those other spots (there is a LOT of info here!). I got so into this topic that I was doing lots of searches on the old threads to catch up!


britguy;

and also, your employer is paying a shit ton of that healthcare premium.[/QUOTE]

Actually, no they are not. We pay the health insurance ourselves, as I already stated, as overall the plan was better than what was offered by my husbands company...and I couldn't get added to my husbands plan. I do contact work and am my own employer.

Oh yes, I realise what the medicare tax is as hubby explained this to me when we were looking to move to the US. We did a very detailed and careful tax comparison before moving over as it was a big concern to us. We've now been through one full year in the US: as I've said elsewhere, we must be in the minority but for us the US tax system is more advantageous to us, and we come out ahead (even when adding in our new health premiums and before we talk about mortage savings, etc).

I know that we are lucky and I'm prepared that our situation could change--hence my exploration here.

Hannahmichelle

Well Crikey! My original post opened up a big old can of worms here! Thanks very much everyone for the links and information about various different plans, companies, etc.

Having grown up in the US, being a dual national, I have seen both sides of these systems and have to say there are major advantages to both. Likewise there are huge downsides to both. As far as we can see in our analysis, it's really 6 of one and half a dozen of the other as far as US vs UK healthcare for most middle classers, such as ourselves.

But anyway, thanks again for the info and hopefully we'll get something sorted out!

jen_andreson

Hi!

I meant to post to you directly and I forgot: I am sorry for hijacking your thread, but I was about to post on this topic when I saw your post. Hope that's okay!

I'm same as you--dual, moved over here and the two just can't be compared as they are so different. Makes it hard to know what to do.

Anyway, good luck!

BritGuyTN

In tennessee where we have no state income tax right now I take home about about 1-2% more of my income than I did in the UK - my personal circumstances

jen_andreson:

that plan that you pay yourself - can you post details of the provider - we will be needing to get our own in the not too distant future (both will be self-employed)

cheers

jen_andreson

that plan that you pay yourself - can you post details of the provider - we will be needing to get our own in the not too distant future (both will be self-employed)

Hi there,

It's with Aetna, the PPO 1500 I think it's called. $240 a month, deductible is $3000, split $1500 per person, out of pocket limit is $3000 a person, doctor is $25, specialist $35, ob-gyn exam is free. Drugs have a $250 deductible and are then $15. Everything else is 20% coinsurance, up to that max out of pocket.

Try ehealthinsurance.com to look at all your options--you can search by the deductible and features that you want/need. Our priority areas were 'max out of pocket' split, and a deductible we were comfortable with. We will probably switch to his work plan once I am eligible--it's more expensive but the coverage is most inclusive.

Good luck-interested to hear if you find something.

Hannahmichelle

Of course I don't mind! Lol. It's good to get so many perspectives on this insanely confusing subject! Good luck to you, too!

Elvira

:scared:

jen_andreson

yes, I don't like co-insurance either, but it's only up to the max out of pocket. We had a hard time finding a plan that didn't have a co-insurance or one that would give us 100% hospital cover. Do you/does anyone know of any we should look for?

We made sure the max was something we were comfortable with...and we wanted to keep down the monthly premium...and we carefully read all the fine print and asked lots of questions.

For example, I average 1 doc visit a year (always for bronchitis) and DH goes about once every 3 years...so we didn't want to spend a fortune on monthly premiums. Instead we made sure we had a deductible and max we were comfy with, should we have an emergency.

Appreciate any advice if there is something better out there.

Elvira

Oh sorry, I misunderstood - I thought it's 20% of everything, not just $3000. Those policies, unfortunately, are all too common. Imagine having to pay 20% of a heart bypass or cancer...

You seem to have done your homework - can't have been easy!

jen_andreson

Aww, cheers for that. For I minute I was afraid that I missed a better deal! This health insurance thing was the toughest part about moving over! A friends advice to us was to watch that max out of pocket, because, as you say, heart surgery or cancer can be expensive (God forbid).

Our friends and family were so helpful with this--I made my brother in law (an attorney) and others read and re-read everything for us as I had no idea what some of this meant. Lovely hubby tried to help, but he's more of a risk-taker than me!