I can relate!

Cheryl P. wrote:

The hospital system requires that card (different name in different
provinces), and has one of its own, so if you are referred to one of the
hospital system clinics for something or other, you need the hospital
card too, and you'll probably have a referral letter to hand to the
clerk along with your cards.

In Finland, it's one single card for everything, the national health
insurance card.

As for paperwork, there is none on the public side, except if they want
to access labwork and other tests done by another unit. Then you have to
fill in a consent form, one paper. On the private side, you may have to
fill in a form to get reimbursed from the NHI, but that's also one
single paper. These days, that's often done electronically, so you don't
even have to pay the full sum, only the excess, by showing the NHI card.


--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

outsider wrote:

Why does this not surprise me about you. I have friends who think I am
crazy because I never sell anything I don't need anymore; I give it away.
My mother taught us that no matter how little we had someone always had
less. She taught us never to take what we did not really need.

Yeah, I tend to give things away if I don't need them. I used to hoard a
lot of stuff, now I just want to be free of the clutter, and if my stuff
will make someone else happy, they're welcome to it.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

"Daniel Mahoney" wrote in message
...
I was perfectly healthy until 01, paid into the system since I was 15,
wondered if it was worth it but there is no choice about the money being
taken out of your wages to help towards the health care you might need in
the future or anyone elses.
My eye operations x 7, my cancer operation, the hernia operation cost me
nothing, and I am happy to be on a waiting list for surgery that is not
sight-threatening or life-threatening. It's all comes free for what I
pay
every month, when I look at it it's nearly a tenth of my income though
:-(
However, if I'd been in the USA I suspect I would have been bankrupted by
my
health needs.
How do you all pay for your health over there? Privately, obviously.
Is
there a limit to what you can claim in a year? or two years, or three?
What if you had a health disaster, threatened loss of sight plus cancer
like
I did. Would you be able to claim enough to get the treatment you needed
for both at the same time?

Tweed

If you are one of the large number of Americans that don't have health
insurance, you go without. Or you try to find some way to sell off
everything you own to maybe afford medical care, or you try to get seen
by an emergency room that won't kick you out, but that's difficult if
you don't have a condition or injury that's immediately
life-threatening. Or if you're really lucky you might be able to find a
community clinic that will work with you on working out a financing plan.

If you are facing a threat of loss of sight and a serious cancer, you're
pretty much screwed. You hope to be able to find a charity that will
help you, but for a lot of people that's a dream that never comes true.

If you have really good medical care (the kind that I got used to, and
used to assume was standard) you pay your monthly premium and your
employer plays a part of your monthly premium (a big part). When it
comes time for surgery you might have to pay a deductible amount, or
sometimes just a copay. Last time I had surgery (removal of a lipoma
from my chest) my copay was $150 for the surgery, and $250 for the
anesthaesia (I know I misspelled that).

Most medical insurance now in the US comes with higher copays. I still
haven't had the torn cartilage in my knee replaced because the 20% copay
would cost me a couple thousand dollars out of pocket. My insurance does
limit my copay to a max of $5000 per year, but Im not going to have the
surgery for a good while because I have other things to pay for before I
can throw away $2000 on my knee. And my insurance also has a lifetime
maximum benefit that I can't recall off the top of my head, but I seem
to recall is around a million dollars or so. Yes, if you contract a
really serious disease in your youth you could have your insurance
company a few decades later say "Sorry, you've reached your maximum
benefit, all additional medical treatments will be on your own".

So if your perception of the medical care system in the US has been of a
huge, complicated, politically powerful and ethically corrupt monster,
you've been pretty accurate.



I'm just lucky to live where I do. If my cancer kicks off again, or if I
need more eye stuff it costs me nothing, it's all covered by what I pay
through my wages. I might have to wait for the eyes but I will not to have
to wait for cancer.