anotherlimey

Depends on the insurance plan; some things may be excluded, most plans only cover a percentage of the costs, so you have to stump up the rest.

Example: my fiancee's brother cut his leg open and had to pay $700 for the pleasure of waiting 5 hours in A&E before they stitched it up; he had medical insurance.

candy wy.

shows how much insurance plans are different.
we had been on the insurance 5 days son cut his head open trip to emergency 8 staples in the head. $560 bill. all covered by insurance.

Bob

depends, lot of insurance is good on paper but shite in reality...and depends if you get an HMO....
lot of places won't touch pre-existing conditions, so if you sign up pregnant, you ain't covered....and sometimes there's a window before you actually get covered for the health insurance...

LondonGal

completely unintentional thread hijaking there, soz about that ... with the amount of bitching ya hear about the NHS it just struck me as odd that it was on a list of things that I would have expected to miss.

Guess what he's getting a grilling about tonight ! =p

Bob

Aye, it's one of those things you take for granted, but until you realise that your £6 prescription becomes $160 a month, or whatever, even the simple things like seeing a GP is a hassle, the ease of the NHS suddenly becomes wonderful, and not having to worry about going broke because your sick.

Sure, health care here can be great, but it can be utter shite too, does all depend on where you live, who your employer is, and what insurance you can afford....same could be said for care in the NHS depending on where you live, but at the end of the day, you always have the option of going private if you don't like the wait, but it will always be there for you.

Elvira

Have a look at a bunch of US expats discussing the relative merits of the 2 health care systems: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=10349.0

dkrae

i miss a pub which i can walk to it from my house and the bbc

LondonGal

cheers for the comments and link - interesting stuff. Oh, HMO ?

more to the point however ...

The walk to the pub, get pissed, have curry and walk/stagger home is one we both confirmed we would really miss whilst doing it for the last time last weekend.

Hovis white thick cut and the BBC are the things I think I will miss most tho.

Bob

shite medical, basically your pegged to a doc, anything else that you need, he has to ok via the insurance, and it usually isn't very much, and it's limited to local hosipital, so if your nearest is a death trap, you'll have to use that over the fantastic top in the country specialist hosital across town, for example.

And I know what you mean about the pub, miss that...but the micro brews aren't bad, but still not the pub

Elvira

HMOs - who loves them, eh?

My DH recently spent 8 hours in agony on a gurney, I mean trolley, at our local ER, waiting to be transferred to a hospital covered by our insurance. (That's after an hour spent trying to get hold of someone to authorize said ER visit...)

Last year our family of 5 spent around $12k on co-pays and deductibles (incl. dental).

Welcome to the wonderful world of non-socialized health care!

(OT: Did anyone here ever hear the term 'socialized health care' before coming to the US of A?)
:scared: :scared: :scared:

Bob

HMO's...MIL, one of her friends husband had cancer, now there's a quality cancer place in maine, one of the best for that particular cancer, can't remember what exactly it was, but anyway, it wasn't covered by the HMO, so he had to go to the local hospital, the specialist said that he should go to the good one, would have a chance of survival, or at least prolonging things, but the insurance said no, he died 3 months later.

And never heard of socialised healthcare till I came here...makes it sound like something evil and backwards doesn't it...

ladyofthelake

Had a brief look around that site. The overall feeling seems more positive about the UK, than we seem to be about the US on here. Could the UK actually be better than here? Or are the Americans just better at putting a positive spin on things?

Bob

bit of a weird polite site in some respects...but then perspective does all change depending on the quality of your health insurance and all that ain't it...

woodsey

the weather

Deadmeat

Miss Macclesfield.

--------------------------------
She was the perfect woman,
She was my kind of a bird,
'Cos she stayed in the kitchen and she never said a word.
She had real big tits and a lovely slappable arse,
But now she's into barbeques and wine bars.
Oh, I used to go out with her 'cos she cooked me all me meals,
Then one day she made it big when she won Miss Macclesfield.
She married and Italian just 'cos he were posh,
And they honeymooned in Brussles and he played a bit of squash.
Next she wed an ale baron who come from Lancashire,
But he wasn't rich, he was just another Wigan queer.
Oh, I used to out with here 'cos she cooked me all me meals,
Miss Macclesfield....
Then one day she made it big, when she won Miss Macclesfield.
She'll get fed up of buffets and one day she'll come back,
'Cos she knows that all the real men live in Macc,
She'll tell me that she loves me and she hated livin' with toffs,
So I'll slip her a length and then I'll tell her,
*** off!
I used to go out with her 'cos she cooked a nice bit of grub,
She may have been a beauty queen but I'd rather go down the pub.
Miss Macclesfield, Miss Macclesfield.