Save your NHS, be kind to your NHS

[MorkandMindy]

On a normal commercial healthcare plan I get one free yearly medical which is very cursory, and then various blood tests.

But as for getting the results, I've been phoning the clinic and being told I'll be called back but that never happens. Today I called early and couldn't even leave a message because the mail box was full. I've been at that two weeks so I'm going to go down there and see if I can get an appointment. Telephones don't seem to work the way they used to.

Even scarier than the quality is the cost:

'On average, a couple retiring at 65 can expect to spend $220,000 on health care costs during retirement -- and that does not include long-term-care costs, according to new estimates by Fidelity Investments.'
https://www.kiplinger.com/article/r...y-check-health-care-costs-early-retirees.html

This assumes you buy into traditional Medicare, Medicare D and Medicare Advantage, costs are then limited by a new law to 6,700 dollars a year out of pocket on top of what you spent on medicare. Any nursing home or assisted living is going to add to any medical costs and will itself be expensive.

 

[MorkandMindy]

The day of the operation has finally arrived; It's tomorrow!

I became ill in March 2019 with hyperparathyroidism. Because I have a low income and had to wait for the enrollment period, it took two years with various dead ends, appeals, and delays to get health insurance.

I didn't notice the health insurance I chose was not in a network, so I got booked with the lowest cost companies for the pre-op tests and scans, and it took six months to get through the 12 appointments, each with an average waiting time of 2 weeks. In contrast, a relative in England with the same problem got all those tests done in one hospital within four hours, in one day. Yes, I'm jealous.

The parathyroid grew during those two and a half years until a simple laparoscopic operation was no longer possible, so now I'm scheduled for a general anesthetic in the main operating theatre.

If I survive I'll post how much it ended up costing.

 

[MorkandMindy]

The operation went really well.

As for the cost, I'll take a wild guess that it will be billed at 30,000, of which the insurance will pay about 10,000 according to the discounts they have arranged, I will pay a smaller fraction, and the rest will get written off in the usual way.

As for counting it up, I'm only just now getting the bills from August.

I'm expecting about 50 bills in total from at least eight different companies. The scary bit is if one of the staff was hired from an agency because then I have to pay the full charge without any discount, or that's what happened last time, and that was expensive.

 

[lismore]

I recall back in Britain seeing tabloids proclaiming the salaries of some of the highest-paid doctors, and Nigel Farage saying the NHS should copy some of the things done in America.
.

N Farage might be someone to be wary of. He was praising Putin a few weeks back on GB news, now he might well regret that. I would definitely not wish to copy any aspect of the American health care system. Kind Regards to you

 

[MorkandMindy]

Corruption produces big profits, and big profits pay hefty bribes to propagate further corruption.

Private Health Insurance has spread across the United States, is one of several entities controlling the government, and is now spreading into Britain.

Stephen Fry explains how big the problem is becoming:

 

[lismore]

Corruption produces big profits, and big profits pay hefty bribes to propagate further corruption.

Private Health Insurance has spread across the United States, is one of several entities controlling the government, and is now spreading into Britain.

Interesting video! England might be slightly further along this road than Scotland. The 'Conservatives' seem to try to change everything, sell national assets off, privatize, cut. I wonder why they call themselves 'Conservatives'. What do they conserve? Kind Regards