How much do you pay for health care?

I've been in the UK nearly a year and have paid nothing for health care. I'm working and being taxed now but I have no idea how much of that tax is going to the NHS fund. Personally, I don't care. It appears that I am paying a lower rate of tax overall than I was in the US so I'm still ahead of the game.

 

Right now its about 400 a month for me and my wife for health and dental and then I put an additional 150 a month into an FSA. I've already burned through my FSA this year because of a double root canal I had last month. FSA's aren't bad, but you do need to think a bit when you set them up. I wish I would have maxed mine out, and next year I will if it is still available. I'm really worried about my premiums for next year. I've seen numbers that point in both direction and I expect that I'll be paying more.

 

The NY Times weighs in:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html?hp

Snippet:

Whether directly from their wallets or through insurance policies, Americans pay more for almost every interaction with the medical system. They are typically prescribed more expensive procedures and tests than people in other countries, no matter if those nations operate a private or national health system. A list of drug, scan and procedure prices compiled by the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurers, found that the United States came out the most costly in all 21 categories — and often by a huge margin.​

 

I know what you mean. I sliced myself open at work recently (my own fault for being careless) and the last thing I would have wanted was to worry about paying to get stitched up.

 

I was pretty stupid and wasn't wearing gloves when I clearly should have been (and had been trained to).

 

I'm a student, so I don't pay at all..

 

Personally I paid about 11K for health care last year and I'll have paid a little more then that when this year is complete. But I had some issues that were beyond maintenance over the winter and spring. At first they thought medication could resolve everything and while medication did help it didn't completely resolve the issues so the next step was surgery. I checked around because I wasn't in a situation where I need it and I needed it right then. Quickly I went to Florida (Tenet) and Oregon (Legacy Eman.) to get advice and quotes. I had an appointment in Texas but realized they were also part of Tenet which honestly didn't dazzle or impress me at all. When I finally decided I had the surgery which was quick, one night, here in Merida at Star Medica. I pay completely out of pocket and the cost was around 6K. The room for the night which was very nice was $120. In the states the best quote was around 20k but there was no written assurance that that would be the end total. Here my quote was basically "this is the total cost of everything including four house calls to your home by your doctor post op." And the surgeon did come by and check on me four times, even brought a translator to make sure I understood everything. BTW- my normal doctor does house calls, that's just common here. She see's me for an on going but stable issue I have in my right leg/foot and hypertension. I see her four times a year normally and she charges $45-50 per visit (depending on the peso exchange rate.)

This is exactly what my room looked like-



As you can see it's a private room and the couch makes into a bed so family and friends may stay with you in comfort your entire stay. This is their junior suit. No one asked me what type of room I wanted but I found out they have a stand room without so much space for family and friends and a master suite that is larger and has a several TV's and includes mini bar for family. This is the family area of the master suite-



Through the door on the left is a room with a hospital bed they can bring in equipment based on patient needs.

I've never seen hospital rooms like this in the US although I'm sure they exists. But the costs are probably obscene. Every time I've had a hospital stay north of the border the room was either a double or really small and always sterile looking. Rooms here tend to look like half way decent hotel accommodations.

Basically all medical care here is way less expensive including medication. My BP meds run about $200 a month in Oregon, here at Costco same medication from the same lab is $50. I often see cruise ship passengers lined up at Costco buying 3 month supplies of their medications. I spoke to one man who told me he take a cruise from Texas once every three months, buy his meds here and the whole thing including the cruise cost him 1/2 what the medication would cost him in the states. Plus now he cruises so often they give him free up grades and drink packages.
--- merged: Jul 10, 2013 at 1:05 PM ---

I'm not sure what you're saying with "good for you" but there have been legal challenges to PERS that would affect people already in the system or already retired and changing the rules after the fact has not worked out so well in court fights. My guess is Oregon is done with trying to change the rules for people in already in the system but will have to make adjustments to new hires. Maybe soon there will be a tier 3 for new PERS hires? I know during the 80's we went years with no cost of living increases and came close to going on strike more then once. A couple times we were award more benefits, vacation days etc... and earlier retirement/better retirement benefits instead of any increase in pay. When I first started with the State of Oregon the most you could earn in vacation was 3 weeks a year. By the time I retired I was earning 4 weeks a year. Police an Fire used to have 25 years and reach the age of 60 to retire. Now it's which ever comes first. Plus you can buy your military service and cut that down to 21 years. Clerical employees working in police dept. and fire dept. were not included but bargained to get those benefits forgoing pay increases to get them. Oregon in the late 90's tried to go back and take away benefits they awarded instead of giving pay raises and the courts wouldn't let them. That's how Tier 2 came about.

 

I have no idea why people in the US think single payer is such an awful idea.