Guys across the pond what's your health like?
I hear getting things done is very fast and from what I've read recently about certain things on the forum it sounds in good shape or does this depend on the insurance company?
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Guys across the pond what's your health like?
I hear getting things done is very fast and from what I've read recently about certain things on the forum it sounds in good shape or does this depend on the insurance company?
From my experience, it depends on your physician and the insurance company. Usually things go well, but occasionally you have to appeal a decision the insurance companies make.Quote:
Originally Posted by marcus300
Depends, 10 years ago it was stellar dispite what you may have heard. Insurance premiums were low, deductibles and copays were low and anyone who didn’t have insurance could get state covered care or emergency medical procedures including surgeries were covered by the state. Now that government jumped in, and put an enormous amount of regulation into the process it had hampered the system. Premiums have gone up 100’s of percentages in 3 short years, if a mans plan didn’t cover female reproductive services for him, he lost his plan and got moved to a more expensive and less coverage plan. Deductibles are through the roof so essentially all doctor visits except for a yearly checkup are typically all that’s “free,” minus a copay that’s typically 50 dollars or more. People can still get high end plans but they must meet ObamaCare stipulations lncluding female reporoductive care for males. I’m my opinion it is still far better than a full on socialized system. All the worlds best doctors come to practice in the US. Infact Britain was and still is to some extent suffering a catastrophic amount of “brain drain,” of its medical professionals to the US. ObamaCare slowed that to some extent but it’s still a real problem for Britain.
https://www.investors.com/politics/e...r-brain-drain/
The last and worst part about the American System is you were forced to by a plan or you had a 6k tax penalty to pay for horrible plans if you chose not to participate. I would buy a private plan and take a partial penalty because I came out way ahead on premium and coverag. Because I could select non-ObamaCare compliant health plans, pay the partial penalty and get the services I need and not the ones I don’t pay for.
ObamaCare and the Socialization of our system was one reason I left the medical realm. It’s gotten a bit better under Trump as he had squashed a lot of the crushing regulations. But in my opinion it’s only a matter of time before it’s here full on. Americans are through liberal de education, mass migration and media propagandaturning against the Capitalist systems. A system that took us from a colonial poverty stricken group of rebels to the most powerfully economic system ever conceived. 44% of millinials think socialism is a better form of government then a representive democracy. Despite what you see happened in Cuba, Venezuela, USSR and so on.
End rant.
Not to buck you MS but wasn't the penalty only $600 if you choose to opt out?...and I agree with most of what you say but don't you think everyone should be responsible for their own Heath insurance like we do with our vehicles?...I think if we keep Leting the uninsured go to the emergency room every time they fart and it smell funny it will put the hospitals out of business because no one pays but they can't refuse service...at least that is what is happening in my very rural state where the hospitals might have 100 beds...idk I wish I had the answers...
Depends on your income level. The penalty was rolled out in incremental increases. It was based on what the average persons premium would be. The thinking was, that if it cost the same to take the penalty or take the insurance people would take the insurance. The problem was, that cost increases rapidly.Quote:
Originally Posted by ghettoboyd
Secondly health care is a privilege not a right. You can’t commission a doctor to perform his services for free, that’s called slavery. We do not allow or even think of doing that with any other profession. But somehow as a health care provider my services are available to anyone for free, and forced upon by the govenrment.?
If for example my education was provided for free by the government (which most US Medical professionals aren’t) i guess I could see that being part of the repayment but it’s not. I also think that the government shouldn’t force anyone to by auto insurance that should be up to the individual person and to whatever Lean Holder the person is going through.
Lastly, if we deregulated the Health care industry and allowed for a truer free market approach and companies could compete across state lines. Health insurance premiums would go way down, providers would have to compete with others and keep their price down and it would be as cheap as car insurance is now, that is allowed to compete across state lines.
Just my 2cents. It will never happen we will eventually have full on socialized medicine people can see past their noses to see how drastically bad it will be. The VA is just one prime example. California was going to offer Medicaid to all Californians but it was going to cost them double what their annual budget already is.
thanks for the education i know i am just an outsider looking in and know nothing as its not my field so i get it and thank you for your perspective...
I think it is getting worse. I just looked this up, Only 12 percent of adults have Proficient health literacy, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. In other words, nearly nine out of ten adults may lack the skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease. Fourteen percent of adults (30 million people) have Below Basic health literacy. So you have the Liberal Media and ObamaCare telling us one thing while the real issue is prevention and education.
My wife is also a nurse and works marketing drugs. So we both have seen what doctors and nurses have to go to with the new electronic medical records system. More time charting and less time spending with the patient asking questions and educated them. More and more doctors are leaving the profession. There will be more APRN and PA that treat patients now than doctors. I really feel for the new doctors that are getting into medicine. They rack up a shit ton of debt and then the governemt wants to say how much they can make or will pay for.
Where I used to be able to see just one doctor to get things, medications, now I have to see a couple of them. This is worse in the VA system here. FML, it is hard enough to get to get a doctors appointment then they have their back to you and just charting. I have a very high health IQ so it pisses me off when you ask for a basic medication that has been around for years, like an SSRI, but they say you need to go see another doctor to get a percription for that drug. You end up spending all freaking day waiting to see the doctor and get 10 minutes of thier time and not getting what you needed to begin with.
The positive side is that I also have a private doctor and great medical insurance due to my wife. I just send her a electronic request and it is taken care of. Doctors like this are very hard to find.
The basic thing is anything government puts its hands on will increase cost and decrease efficiency. Some regulation is needed but for the most part, Medicine now is not subject to the market pressures that other insurance types are like car insurance or home owners. So you don’t get the competive benefits like you do in other aspects of life. Which potentially will mean like what just happened in the U.K. where they cancelled 50k in “elective,” surgeries because they got inundated with more flu patients. They needed to pull all their resources and cost to deal with something simpl like the flu. Which again is fine if that’s what we want here.Quote:
Originally Posted by ghettoboyd
Great posts guys thanks for the insight.
On average how much does it cost monthly for decent health insurance
I pay about $260/month for health, dental, and vision, for Mrs. AG and myself. That's for a 90/10 coverage with a $2500 deductible and a $5000 out of pocket max for the year. However, my employer pays some of the cost as well, so I don't know the true total cost.
Also, my employer kicks in $2250/year into a health saving account and I put in another $300/month. My contributions to the HSA are deducted before taxes, so you get a little more bang for your bucks.
Health insurance through a group is typically much cheaper than if you purchase it on your own.
Oh dont get me started on it. They are making money from the suffering of other people. Doctors are over prescribing the medications. I moved here from Canada and was like WTF?? Here is an example. If you want certain BP medication cause you been on it for 10 years, they first deny it and then you try and buy it yourself it will cost you 250$ US for a month. I said fvck it went across the border to Canada, see the doctor for free, got the 3 month supply for 150$CDN . Another example I am on TRT when I was paying 600$/mnth insurance was paying 50% of it and now I change the plan they dont want to pay. I see old people taking handful of pills and going no where. it is actually sad
Yes Cal our system has some holes in it the meds here are way too high and they are getting on Doctors who are pill pushers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarian
The thing about our system is that it funds new drug research almost in totality. Most countries limit the price drug companies can charge for their products. But because we have more of a capitalist system drug companies to some extent can charge and recoup their product cost. On average it takes 3 billion dollars and 10 plus years to bring a new drug to market. Without the American system, new therapies would be close to half of what they are now. And maybe much less than that, foreign pharma companies know that they can get a ROI for new products by selling in the America Market. While yes, the U.K. is preducing 10-13% of new Drugs each year, all of them are developed with a Target market in the US. Secondly they have an advantage that as they are implimenting studies in the US for future FDA approval. The European regulatory bodies approve for useage much sooner than in America so it behoves Both international and American companies that have international branches to try the European market first so they can recoup cost while waiting on approval in the US.Quote:
Originally Posted by songdog
https://www.google.com/amp/www.ibtim...112662%3famp=1
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...-exceeds-2-5b/
A buddy of mine manages over 100 pharmaceutical reps for one of the big pharma companies. He recently told me that many of them are former doctors that became disgusted with the industry and now love what they do for him. Great pay, no stress.
I think I need to go become a rep for Watson Pharma.
A friend of mine recently got into the business and two of his companies reps in their territory are MD’s. Had I known better, as soon as I graduate with my bachelors I would have become a rep...Quote:
Originally Posted by kelkel
^^^^ What he saidQuote:
Originally Posted by MuscleScience
From my experience it isn't that bad except getting any concerns addressed when it comes to testosterone is a serous issue if you are under 40 years old. Had to fight with my doc before (Kaiser) regarding my test levels and all I did was ask for a hormone panel, he said absoletly not and don't even think about taking "steroids"
I went to a TRT clinic and my test was below 220s and free/total test also wasn't good. No test damage I can think or remember of but I did have legit reasons to start TRT
Really depends on the physician and your insurance. We have Tricare through the Army, and we also have an awesome doctor who gets stuff done and will fight with our insurance to get things approved for my wife.
https://youtu.be/nyUFB-Ce4Z0Quote:
Originally Posted by ghettoboyd
Depends on your job. My last employer it was around 150/month. My new job it's double that. And without an employer backed one, you're fucked. They forced all the companies to accept people with pre existing conditions....so everyone else has to pay for it. It's bs, but at least when I need something done, I can find a doctor to do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by marcus300
When I tore my bicep I read all kinds of horror stories from england and canada where they were wait listed and by the time they were seen the tendon had died and needed a more complex surgery. That was in 2011, it's gotten worse here since then too, but still not like I have heard described from overseas.
Could it be better for life threatening type stuff? maybe....and cheaper, but for people like us that need things that aren't necessarily life threatening but we can't really live without....much rather have what I have.
That's doctor dependent, I've been on replacement for like 4 years with no issues, and my dose is pretty much what I want it to be.Quote:
Originally Posted by goalinmind
Please shoot a few of the Watson/Westward/Hikma cyp samples my way. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by kelkel
Im self employed and my insurance is a god damn mess. Things are constantly changing and im always frantically looking for policies so i dont lose coverage. I pay about 400 a month to get basically nothing. I pay the first 7k of all the expenses. Actually it might be 10k now i cant even remember. Im about to just not have insurance and I'll crawl to a jobsite if i injure myself and collect workers comp (we have a construction company). But shhh thats hypothetical
GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF EVERYTHING
My brothers insurance just changed for the worse. He's been on Androgel for years with only a $10 monthly co-pay. He went to fill the script under the new plan and they told him it would cost him $1,100 out of pocket. So now he's going to finally listen to his little brother and switch to injections. I wrote up exactly how the script should be written and he showed his doctor who said no problem.
Then the asshat doctor changed it to 200 mgs every 14 days. Idiot. Regardless, he's still got enough for 50 mgs x 2 per week.
This thread is yet another shining example of why I have never, and will never carry health insurance. If I cannot afford to pay for something out of pocket, or my creditworthiness isn’t good enough for a loan, I don’t need/deserve said thing.
Besides, you should see how low med bills are when you just pay outright, instead of letting them go through the chargemaster/insurance bloat cycle.
I've never been big proponent of government provided health care. The government already has a complete financial history of every person in the US. I would hate to think that the government has access to personal medical history of every person. Stalin said that the best way to control the population was provide them healthcare. If government was going to get involved in healthcare, they should be on the consumer side and mandate fixed costs on the healthcare provider side. In Japan, an CAT scan cost $50 in the US, the cost exceeds $5000+. The excuse is that the equipment companies needs to charge more money for the latest technology. Here's the funny thing. Japan and the US has the same technology. Why can the Japanese healthcare system charge $50 and turn a profit when in the US we have to charge $5000+. The additional cost is passed on to the consumer. We pay a lot of money for healthcare in the US. Most of the burden is put on the companies. Imagine if every company could give our healthcare co-pay back to us as a bonus each month. We'd have $1000's of dollars back in our pockets each year.
When the US government healthcare officials who's suppose to regulate the healthcare industry, is done working for the government, where do they go to make big salaries? Well, to the healthcare companies that they've been regulating. Yep, they don't want to regulate the companies too hard when you might be looking for a job with them. The middle class bears the burden of the government ineptitude.
I paid for a CT Scan out of pocket last summer after a car accident. Billed cost? $85. That stupid ass $5000 figure you see is the chargemaster/insurance company bloat I was talking about in my last post.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScotchGuard02