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Thread: This is a must watch by everyone in the U.K.

  1. #21
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    Default Re: This is a must watch by everyone in the U.K.

    Captain, re your visit to a U.S. hospital "I had to pay $85,000.00", for your operation. Previously you have said that you had trip insurance and were covered. So I assume your being out-of-pocket for your treatment was a typo or an error.

    Let's assume I have the same medical complaint as you and enter the same hospital at the same time with the same complaint. We both receive the same successful treatment. We are about the same age. The only difference is I'm a bit better looking...just putting you on.

    I would never receive a bill. I'm over 65—well over—and have paid at least 10 years in to the Social Security system which is mandatory for every employed person, thus I am covered for 80% of the bill by Medicare. I have insurance coverage with Blue Cross, a medical insurance U.S. wide, which I pay a monthly premium to cover me for the remaining 20%. Thus so far both of us have paid nothing to the doctors or the hospital.

    You paid for medical trip coverage, and I paid monthly premiums. And neither of us encountered a crapped on toilet or stayed in a ward, sharing a disgusting room with other people.

    My late grandmother was in hospital, I think it was in Waltham Cross (?), I know it was near Epping Forest in Essex. Anyway, it too was disgusting. She was in a bed in a room containing ten beds and patients. We had to gain entrance to her ward by a filthy elevator that wouldn't pass as a service elevator in Delhi.

    As she got treatment a screen was placed around her bed with a section ripped, completely belying any semblance of privacy. This was like something out of an 19th century English novel. To round it off, the nurse brought in a treat for my gran—2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. My cousin Jackie, from Canada, who was visiting with me, told the nurse, "She shouldn't be eating that, she's diabetic!" "Oh, it's only a couple of scoops, she so does love ice cream, don't you dearie?" Granny nods with glee, she was 93 by the way.

    Sorry, but if what you say about crap all over the place in your hospital and you too stuck in a ward like granny, I'll take our system every time.

    Now, before the incoming:

    If I was indigent, same age as us, but no insurance or money, with exactly the same complaint as you and in the same city and at the same time:

    In honesty, I would probably not get the same surgeon, may be not the same hospital (but cannot be turned down for treatment). However like both of us if it was an emergency and if it wasn't safe to send me/him to another hospital/surgeon, he would be treated the same and if that surgeon was on duty operated by him.
    Exactly the same. Including room, food, the whole thing.

    Except his bill would be written off, and the accountants would have incorporated the loss of him to your and my and others billing. You saw the bill for $85,000., but no way the insurance company paid that amount, neither did Medicare for me. Insurance companies and government backed negotiate lessor fees due to bulk billing and neither do the doctors or hospitals expect to get the original billing price. $85,000. is a joke, the real amount paid by your insurance company was around $20,000. and maybe a little less by the government insurance program for me.

    The only loser in the States would be the person who gambled that a sever accident where they were at fault, or a severe disease that would never happen to them and it happened and he/they had cash assets and say in your case didn't have full coverage and didn't want to catch the first plane back to the U.K, or Delhi, or me not wanting to buy the 20% difference between what Medicare covered and the full cost, but all of us stayed and had assets (money in the bank, or stocks but not counting ones house or automobile) then we would be out for 20% of the billable price or $17,000.

    From the first day in to the States I was covered by union medical coverage. Then as I moved up the ladder, company employee coverage. The higher I got the more sophisticated became my coverage.

    When I retired, at 43, the first thing I did was take out private coverage that covered me all over the world. I travelled (backpacking) for thirteen years, but I was medically covered and always have been.

    The main problem of the horror stories you hear in the States about medical coverage is from people that will buy a top of the line personal car and gamble on the medical insurance and then cry foul when the illness hammer whacks them. I always put medical coverage first.

    My wife and I have one car a stick shift, Toyota Corolla and that's all we have driven since we retired 40 years ago. We pay cash for a new one every ten or so years. But we pay our medical coverage without fail every month.

    Excuse typos and spelling, busy day today, this is my fun hour.

    Cheers, Rodney
    Last edited by Rodney Mills; 22nd December 2019 at 01:47 AM.

  2. #22
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    Default Re: This is a must watch by everyone in the U.K.

    Hi Rod,

    just checked my post , re: Honolulu .
    It was a Typo/
    The Insurance forms I had to sign for my treatment in the hospital showed $85,000 plus a few odd ones, that was for nearly three weeks in-patient with two life saving operations, treatment for a Cardiac Arrest after the second operation. private room with a bedroom, small lounge, bathroom, a computer, TV etc. pure Luxury. and a lovely Nurse alongside 24 hours a day until recovery. Also after release, one week of out patient treatment,
    I did not have to pay the $85,000, that was up to my Insurance Co. to pay the hospital. What goes on behind the scenes I have no idea. I paid nothing,
    But the treatment and service was more than First Class. They saved my life and I would have gladly paid the full amount if I had to.
    Thank you, Queens Medical Centre.
    Brian
    Last edited by Captain Kong; 22nd December 2019 at 11:11 AM.

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