Worldly Chatter

In Yahoo news, there was an article on health care in the US verses four other countries done in this survey. Germany, Canada, Britain and Australia all have better coverage but with less money. It is well known that America has ridiculous prices, poor coverage with approximately forty million uninsured. “The U.S. health care system ranks last compared with five other nations on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes,” the non-profit group which studies health care issues said in a statement. Many people get their medications now via internet through Canada because the cost of prescriptions is so high that many people cannot afford the very thing that makes them well.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day from America about coverage and payment when it comes to health insurance. This person informed me they pay $280 every two weeks for health insurance. I gasped when I heard this! Now that I am insured, I pay €150 a month and because Dutchie belongs to the ANWB, the equivalent of AAA, I get a five percent discount on my payments. My coverage is more accessible, more extensive than my friend is and it is half of what she pays. I have a five-page list of absolutely everything covered and some of it I never even thought should be covered! Certain plastic surgeries I thought would be electives and discounts at participating gyms! Pain killers are covered where once I had to pay. I can recall, with good coverage through a company I was working for, having co-pay and I still had to pay for the braces for my hand. Here I do not have co-pay and any brace I may need is covered. I can recall having to pay for the ambulance ride with state funded insurance and yet even under the most basic coverage that ride is covered. How can it be so easy in countries like Holland, Germany and Britain and so expensive in America? It is a sad state when forty million Americans aren’t insured. Here it is required that everyone be covered and approximately 150,000 – 200,000 are not insured. Compare that to forty million.

Even the difference in the way patients are treated in America still gets to me. It all depends on your insurance and money. I know no one wants to say it but there is a difference in where you can go, whether you get the help you need and how they treat you. I have seen it and experienced it. Everyone is equal until you open your wallet. I understand that medical costs money but why turn someone away simply because their insurance isn’t adequate enough, why not tell them where they can go to get help? Reason is that there aren’t many places any more that take people who don’t have the means. When I lacked insurance I could not get seen for the bronchitis I had because there wasn’t a facility near me that would see someone poor like me. I had to drive forty minutes to see someone at a clinic that didn’t have the antibiotics I could take because I am allergic to so many. So if I don’t have the gas money to go and they aren’t are not able to give me what I need then what is the point? I am stuck with bronchitis and pray it doesn’t get worse. It did of course and I had to be rushed to the ER where I then received a bill for nearly $800 for the whole affair. Again, where was I to get that kind of money? The system isn’t fair, the system is flawed and inadequate.

It just seems astonishing to me the differences in benefits, coverage and overall treatment in Europe compared to America. I am covered when I travel where if I wanted that coverage that was extra. Of course, with the traveling done and klutz I tend to be this is a needed feature in my coverage! Remembering what I had and looking at what I have now it just blows me away. I cannot believe all the things I can take care of with little to no fuss now. I was once covered in America. Once through the state and once through a company I worked with. The differences in that alone were drastic but even with the good insurance I had it doesn’t beat this and I pay so much less! I suppose it is just one more difference I see along the way.

US Healthcare system, Medical insurance, European medical coverage, ORHA, Netherlands medical insurance