Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad

I spent 12 dollars learning absolutely diddly-squat - apart from reinforcing a previously held view that in general, british embassies/consulates are a total waste of time and no help whatsoever to the people they are supposed to be helping, unless the help required is in arranging a feakin' cocktail party................

Originally Posted by Wintersong

That's nothing - the US Embassy in London charges you 1 pound 60 a minute!

I once spent 10 pounds finding out diddly squat. Luckily, I had phoned them from work

Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad

Nuts - why did I read this post tonight!!!!

My blood pressure has been thru the roof today, and I've just mellowed out with a nice drop of red and some cheese, and then -bang - right back where I started...why, well.........

My 2 year old broke his arm on Saturday. 4 hours in the ER and he comes home with a splint, a referral to an orthopaedic consultant for today, and a bill for a couple of grand

Today we went down for our 2.30 appointment, got to see the doctor an hour later. Spent the hour in game room just off the the marble floored reception, complete with granite counter and designer "faux finishing". Game room has hand painted jungle mural, xbox/pPS2/gamecubes all linked to flat panel tvs etc etc....should have started the alarm bells ringing...

See the doctor for less than 10 minutes (kerching $270consultant fee) then go thru to get the cast fitted - another 10 minutes (kerching $210 nurses fee) Hands up any nurses earning over a thousand bucks an hour...err no takers? no, thought not..... guess it must be the massive overheads to pay for all that marble and xbox's........
And then the icing on the cake - apparently it was "special" casting material - Ker-bleeding-ching! 3 x $250 = $750 for a strip of gauze, a roll of cotton wool and a blue plaster of paris coated bandage....this is for a 2 year old right - I mean the whole cast is about 12inches long and I can get my fingers round it at the widest point.

And in 3 weeks we have to go to have it taken off........

Our total bill for a 2 year old busted arm is going to be about 4 grand

Give me the NHS any day!

Forget traffic wardens, estate agents and tax inspectors - the top of the medical food chain go straight to the top of my own personal thieving scumbag hit list...

Err, sorry, rant over - now wheres that other bottle of red....

Ps - On the plus side, the little fella is being a right little soldier about it all. A few tears when it happened, but since then, not a single complaint - just getting on with life as normal - and he's just discovered that a big blue pot on his arm is a truly multifunctional weapon in his defence arsenal against big brother.......

Originally Posted by NC Penguin

Just to get a grasp of costs, is this with or without medical insurance? If these costs you've quoted are with medical insurance, is all this treatment in network or out of network?



NC Penguin