Keith

Wait lists? You should be more specific. There are rarely wait lines for life threatening treatments. Now for hip and knee replacement yes but this is common in the US as well and those that are uninsured, they are not on any list.

exvj

The general practitioner thing in a nice area in the UK is great - walk into a lovely surgery with no appointment and 7 quid max for a prescription. The specialist thing was a real bind with long waiting lists for say MRI (6 months). Physio 4 months.
National health dentists were dying out when I left and they were charging like these greedy gits in the US...
Last week when this floater appeared in my eye, I read on the internet that it might be detached retina and if I didnt get treatment immediately, I could go blind. I called the hospital which is half a mile away and 10 minutes later I was seen by an eye MD who spent 30 minutes actually poking my eye around. $20 copay. All is well but if that had been the UK I would have been worried to heck for how long ? A long time - many hours and probably days. Its 6 hours in reception to get seen with a broken arm in Leeds Infirmary - especially if there are kids in line - middle aged European men get much older before they are seen. I was the only non- asian person of 40 in the waiting room in Bradford (Bradistan) and probably the only one who could speak English - the others were dressed like they had just arrived from some sort of housing project in Kabul and they had rickety legs and crossed eyes, boils and all sorts of 3rd world ailments. All the women looked 9 months pregnant and all the guys looked 90 and wore silk pyjamas and had long white beards. It was like standing in line in an Afghan refugee camp. I am glad these poor people are getting medical attention but I was living in a 3rd world setting - I hadnt gone to Afghanistan, Afghanistan had come to me.

My 90 year old mother had a fall in Leeds and she was on a stretcher in a corridor when I arrived - she had been there 5 hours and had not been properly seen. I called back in the morning and she was on the same stretcher in the corridor.

Now wouldnt it be nice if we could have US standards with an in-between cost that saves all the insurance company profit and lawyers and compo and administration.. I reckon thats the best that can be hoped for

scrubbedexpat099

You can also go private in the UK.

But you have also outlined why a NHS style operation is no solution for the US, or the UK.

exvj

I was toying with the idea of going private in the UK, but I am a strong supporter of universal health care. I had private health care as part of my job benefits for 10 years in the UK so I know about boiled eggs on a silver tray and a nice telly and 6 morning papers to chose from and 3 nurses to fluff your pillows up so you can view the bunnies in the parkland. Now I have experienced US style health care too, I would not go back to the NHS meat market if I do go back to the UK - not for specialists anyway
I had a very enjoyable colonoscopy here and was told that I had triglycerides too. We didnt have colons and triglycerides in the UK - no annual check ups - nothing
The NHS was great when I was a kid and the quack used to walk into our house without knocking and go into the bedroom and check us out. It's gone to pot now. When I cut my leg to the bone, he put 8 stitches in without anaesthetic while my dad sat on me.
I reckon Obama is just going to try to make the US more cost efficient and cover the people who the government pay for anyway - all these idiots with gunshot wounds every saturday night who get plugged free - the government will pay the insurance company premium for them but the net result will be the same

Keith

These things happen in every country.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n2923545.shtml

Giantaxe

The idea that care isn't rationed in the US - even to those with insurance - is completely bogus. Here's an article from the NY Times on the subject:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/bu...nhardt.html?hp

exvj

wow

i have made a note not to go to a free emergency room at midnight in gangland los angeles !

I believe that those situations are worse than anywhere in the UK just because of guns and I bet there are armed guards on the door too.

Starting January 1968, I was an inner city police officer in the UK for a few years so I know what goes on in emergency rooms at midnight on a Saturday - but I bet its that times 10 here.

I will stay in this western tumbleweed hick town and relish the serene boredom and howdy pardner life style

scrubbedexpat091

I dont know anyone in the US who has waited more then a couple weeks, the wait lists down there is far far shorter then in Canada.

The wait times we see in Canada would not be acceptable to most insured folks in the US.

I had a MRI in California (not life threatning) went in and received it the next day, my wife needed one here in BC and the wait almost 2 months.

scrubbedexpat091

The system in place in Canada is not the way to go. Its so frustrating to get in to see a doctor that I just dont go.

I see the doctor less here then I did when I paid a co-pay. Why? Because I dont have the time to wait 2+ hours at the walk in clinic, and we have no doctors accepting new patients so there is no other choice.

Most of those who are insured in the US would not accept the system we have in place here and thats why its an uphill battle to get universal care in the US.

Plus like I said before, Canada has a difficult time funding a system to cover the 30 million who are here, let alone the US trying to do it with 300 million people.

meauxna

Following is some accurate Medicare information from the source, aka a message from the Big Giant Head. I haven't been following this topic and I don't know anything about it, so I can't/won't discuss it. However, it was kind of the BGH to share the information to help a fellow old fart out.

If you have any quesitons about your own eligibility, suggest you contact the SSA directly.

--------------------------------

This is probably something best discussed in a Social Security office, since SSA makes the decision of if a penalty will apply. Now I would say if he become eligible for Medicare on his spouse's record while in the U.K. and doesn't enroll in Medicare B he is going be hit with the Part B penalty when he does enroll, unless he is eligible for a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) .

The 10 percent premium penalty for each 12 month period only applies to Medicare Part B, which is $96.40 this year and the penalty is permanent. The penalty and total premium is calculated on the base premium, i.e. 110 percent of $96.40, 120 percent $96.40, etc.

HI 01001.002 Premium Payable and Surcharges--2001
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601001002

For some reason that sections of POMS has never been updated, but you can see how the penalty would be figured.

HI 01001.010 Premium Increase for Late Enrollment
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601001010

If he is covered on his wife's or his group health plan based on current employment during the whole time he was eligible for Medicare Part B,then there will not be a penalty

HI 00805.266 Description of Terms Used in the Special Enrollment Period and Premium Surcharge Rollback Provisions
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0600805266

A GHP is any plan of, or contributed to, by one or more employers to provide health benefits or medical care (directly or otherwise) to current or former employees, the employer, or their families. The term GHP applies to self-insured plans, plans of governmental entities (Federal, State and local), and employee organizational plans (e.g., union plans or employee health and welfare funds). It also includes employee pay-all plans (i.e., plans under the auspices of an employer or employee organization, but which receives no financial contribution from them.) The term does not include plans that are unavailable to employees; e.g., a plan that only covers self-employed individuals.
The employer does not have to be in the United States, and the employee is not required to be working in the United States. A person working for a foreign employer, who has a plan that meets the definition above, is considered covered under a GHP for purposes of the SEP and/or premium surcharge rollback.

There is a one time 10 percent for late enrolling in Part A when you are paying the premiums, but it is not permanent. If he becoming eligible on his spouse's record when she attains age 62, Part A will be free even if he was paying the premium plus the penalty.

HI 01005.010 Premium Increase for Delay in Enrollment
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601005010

Then there is the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and there is a late penalty for that as well, unless you have proof that you were covered by a plan that was as good as what Medicare offers.

http://questions.medicare.gov/cgi-bi...p?p_faqid=1879

exvj

I waited 10 months in the UK for MRI to investigate possible Multiple Sclerosis

Keith

My wife (in Ottawa) was diagnosed with possible Diverticulitis at the Queensway Carleton Hospital emergency on a Sat last Nov and had a CT scan the next day.
At least all Canadians have the same treatment , unlike the 45 million and growing uninsured in the US.

exvj

Yes if I were 'in the middle ' with say $100k in house equity plus $25k in savings and struggling to afford individual insurance, I would be in the worst possible position - unable to get subsidised treatment and in great danger of being bankrupted if something big happened

It will never happen - either I am insured via my wife's job or medicare at $600pm - or I am out of here and back in the UK - its a binary decision

I reckon Obama is going to offer a Fed insurance and he wont be deflected. He either hangs back carefully and looks ineffectual for a while, or he moves decisively on something - he doesnt compromise much - I think he will do it

It would be nice if he rolled medicare into the wider Fed scheme and it was cheaper than the medicare premium of almost 600pm - he might do that - its tipped as a possiblity - but that would be a big bite all at once - i think he would roll that in later once the fed scheme was working

Giantaxe

I feel exactly the same way. I will either be covered by insurance or medicare, or I will be moving back to the UK. I simply won't risk living in the US at my age without adequate health insurance.

I'm not convinced he has the votes in the senate to push federal insurance through - hope I'm wriong!

exvj

They reckon 85% of democrats (and 75% of Americans) want it and they will whack their senators if they dont get on with it

Hope so, but doctors/hospitals/insurers/drug companies have a lot of Billions to bribe them with and we know that works on politicians

I wish some of the crazy extremists would pop the corrupt politicians off instead of the abortion doctors

as they kill far more people with their corrupt ways