Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
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Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#2Even though I've been researching with interest, so far I haven't run across much in the American healthcare system that makes me question my decision (as an American) to move to Denmark. My taxes are higher, but my costs are very predictable, and by design cannot ever bankrupt me: I pay a flat 8% of my income to support the national healthcare system. I won't end up with a charge equal to 20% or 50% or 500% of my income in any circumstance, not even if I get cancer or find myself unemployed. So it's guaranteed that I will always be able to pay my healthcare costs without great hardship.
I do hope someday to move back to the USA (mix of language / "feels like home"), and am mildly hopeful that PPACA will make it feasible, by 2014, for an individual to buy private health insurance without worrying about preexisting conditions and rescissions and whatnot. But we'll see. For now, Danish is growing on me. :P
Incidentally, this kind of emergency care would be free even for a tourist in Denmark. Regular use of the national health system is only available to legal residents, but acute emergency care is considered a basic service not subject to billing, like police and fire response.
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#3[deleted]
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#4Hospitals often bill 5x-10x actual costs to make up for the "discounts" that insurance companies force upon them. If you're uninsured and get hit by a huge bill, you need to negotiate with the hospital to bring the amount down. Doubly so, because hospitals have lax tracking of costs, and no one really knows how much your visit really cost. More about this from an actual MD:
http://truecostofhealthcare.org/hospital_billing
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#5As a Canadian, I couldn't imagine having to decide between money and healthcare. I don't know how you guys do it...
Relevant reading: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/07/12/how-i-lost-...
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#6Even though I've been researching with interest, so far I haven't run across much in the American healthcare system that makes me question my decision (as an American) to move to Denmark. My taxes are higher, but my costs are very predictable, and by design cannot ever bankrupt me: I pay a flat 8% of my income to support the national healthcare system. I won't end up with a charge equal to 20% or 50% or 500% of my in…
Life saving treatment is usually like this all over the world, and in Denmark they will give you a bill unless you're apart of EU, as you'd have the EU health insurance (EHIC), which is free. This card is also valid in countries in the Schengen Area, like Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#7Silly americans... in my country, it's obligatory to have health insurance and if you cannot afford it, the government will pay your insurance, for god's sake. Not even the most conservative and right-wing politicans who see our freedom in danger when we can't keep fully automatic assault rifles at home anymorehere question this system, because it just makes sense.
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#8As a Canadian, I couldn't imagine having to decide between money and healthcare. I don't know how you guys do it... Relevant reading: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/07/12/how-i-lost-...
I'm Canadian but lets be realistic, there are many things that would cause serious financial hardship due to medical costs in Canada. A friend of mine right now is suffering through intense pain from her teeth that aren't being fixed because she doesn't have money/insurance. She's deciding between healthcare and money.
You can also lose your life on a waiting list in Canada. Not much purpose in having $23K in the bank but being dead.
For sure you're not going to get a $23K bill for a bug bite but you will pay $3000/month for chemo, etc. Lots of things aren't covered by medicare, and they're quite expensive. Canada is more like a $23K bill for getting cancer, or other long term/terminal illnesses.
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#9Reminds me of my kid's $6000 bump on the head. Or the time I had and knee operation and they took five minutes extra to clean out something they spotted and added $3500 to the bill. Or the eye operation where they took fifteen minutes extra because there was a detached retina adding $9000 to the bill. (Insurance wouldn't pay that one. They never said why either.)
You are not exactly going to negotiate at moments like these.
Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite
#10Even though I've been researching with interest, so far I haven't run across much in the American healthcare system that makes me question my decision (as an American) to move to Denmark. My taxes are higher, but my costs are very predictable, and by design cannot ever bankrupt me: I pay a flat 8% of my income to support the national healthcare system. I won't end up with a charge equal to 20% or 50% or 500% of my in…
Life saving treatment is usually like this all over the world, and in Denmark they will give you a bill unless you're apart of EU, as you'd have the EU health insurance (EHIC), which is free. This card is also valid in countries in the Schengen Area, like Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
Many countries bill for emergency stays. US emergency rooms definitely send bills, even if it's acute live-saving treatment. Even Canada, which has national healthcare for residents, will bill nonresidents who visit an ER. If you're from another country, you may get away with just not paying one of those bills, because if it's life-saving care they have to provide it before verifying you can pay. But they'll still try to collect on it. That's one reason it's common for people to buy travel health insurance that covers emergency care.
Afaik, Denmark doesn't require the EHIC for acute emergency care. Anyone is eligible for unbilled emergency care, with some exceptions to combat medical tourism (if you're found to have traveled to Denmark for the specific purpose of entering an ER to treat a health condition). The EHIC qualifies you for some additional care, e.g. childbirth. This is actually a big current sore point in Danish politics, because many other EU countries don't extend a reciprocal courtesy.