Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

COBRA is 102% of whatever the combined cost to employer and employee was prior to the employee losing coverage. You can, however, select COBRA coverage for just medical and reject it for dental/vision. Not that that will make a big difference to the cost though, given the cost of medical is so much more than the other two.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

For future reference is there some kind of supplemental health insurance which you can purchase in order to cover these types of periods where you are between policies ? I know when I first arrived I was on some kind of crappy temporary insurance for new immigrants which you could buy for a month at a time.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

http://www.sevencorners.com/insuranc...igrantmedical/

I used these guys for inbound immigrant insurance when I first showed up just to cover an interim period between arriving and my insurance kicking in. It's a bit pants in terms of cover but it's something.

In the meantime - don't get injured - cover yourself in some kind of bubble wrap and don't do anything remotely dangerous.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

I'm sure some can... most don't make even 25% of that amount.


Malpractice insurance is not usually passed on to the patient.


Respectfully, that's not entirely true... but thanks for revealing your spots.

Ian

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Isn't the problem that the Healthcare system is above European Standards - for say cancer survival rates, screening, access to new drugs, diagnostic technology, quick access to specialist trained doctors, treatment for chronic diseases and being the source of the world's leading medical innovations. However it is way below European standards in terms of affordability, access and value for money. The problem therefore is building a care for reform when a significant group of people (the most influential in the country) are receiving superior healthcare.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

Perfect summary of the US healthcare system!

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

You hit that nail perfectly on the head!

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

Since you had travel insurance you can forget about it as it won't apply to you.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

It can be up to 105% of the actual policy cost, but if you're lucky or have a severance deal you may be able to pay considerably less for a short time. You may also get lucky and only have to pay the premium and not the extra admin %.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

Perhaps not directly as an itemized line item on the bill (although there are so many obscure diagnostic codes on there that it probably wouldn't be too difficult to hide it in there if they wanted to ...) but malpractice insurance is part of the cost of doing business for a doctor just like paying the rent on the office and the receptionist and paying the phone bill so ultimately, yes, it does get reflected in the total amount that gets charged.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

The federal government was subsidizing COBRA for a couple of years, but it expired for newly unemployed people almost a year ago.

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

I work with a lot of doctors and surgeons.. and "most" most definitely make more than $250Kpa! Although funnily enough they are still cheap buggers at happy hour...

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

I agree! Read my response again, and the amount that I quote! :)

Ian

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

I know my maths is a bit shit, but 25% of $2M is 500 large :p

Re: NHS applicable at all in the USA?
 

My experience of the "health-care" in the US is very bad, and I've only been here a few months.

My company provides what I was told was a very good health-care and dental policy. It's the same company that I was working for in the UK where I was provided with free Dental and Healthcare.

Now, being a European, I had expected that the level of cover that I had in the EU (basic healthcare provided by "the system" albeit private here and then top-up for better coverage with company-provided private health-care) would be much the same.

Not a bit.

The fact is that the private care provided by our insurance doesn't even meet the same sort of level that I was used to in UK, FR, BE, NL, DE. You should think of your private health coverage as being roughly equivalent to what you get from the NHS of recent years.

As an example. I had a tooth break in January. First, I had to find a dentist. Then I had to get a quote (remember I'm in f-ing agony at this point).

Now - this is where my agony REALLY kicked in.

"Well sir, this is a difficult one" (they ALWAYS tell you that as their rasion-d'etre is to make money, not heal people quickly).

After three visits to the dentist (each at a price), they declare that I need over $15,000 of work. FOR ONE TOOTH ! (My very good UK dentist who does private and NHS work has quoted me around L800 for the same thing).

Now, thinking, OK, at least it's covered by my health-plan, so I'll go for it here, as heading back to the UK is a pain.

But...... my "very good" health-plan only covers 80% of "in-plan" costs for preventative, 50% of other work up to $2500 per year. And, they have defined this dentist as "in-plan" for preventative, but "out-of-plan" for other work ! So, I would liable for all but 10% of the cost of the work. In other words, $13,500.

It's cheaper for me to fly back to the UK and have the work carried out totally privately (which is what I'm going to do).

Frankly, I don't understand why people aren't out on the streets protesting about the appalling state of health-care in the US.