'Murican Healthcare

So there is (and always has been) lots of talk about NHS versus private healthcare etc etc.  There are stories like the guy who got a $55k bill to have his appendix removed (and he had insurance!).  Well, after losing a filling it was time to experience it first hand.

So I made an appointment at one of the large, corporate, chain dentists to see what they advised.  Well, it wasn't great news.  First of all they took a bit of a pop at our UK dentists by accusing them of not having done a very good job (to be fair it could be true as the filling had only been in about 9 months).  Next they said that they simply couldn't just re-fill the cavity and that they'd need to do a new filling.  Problem is that the cavity left behind is quite near the nerve so chances of them breaking through and me requiring root canal treatment were high.  Next came the good bit....the bill:

So, the filling part wasn't too horrendous - $219 + 29.  It's a lot but I was sort of expecting it.  However, the root canal treatment would be $2,500!!!  A flight home is $600.  No prizes for guessing which option we might be going with.  The really worrying thing though, is that it appears that the dentist here are actually incentivised for doing a bad job - I mean you're a little bit too harsh with the drill and suddenly you've just increased your turnover ten fold.  I should probably give the dentists here a bit more credit than that but lets be honest money is usually a pretty good incentive and these are busy people who are targeted to up sell and see as many customers (I mean patients) as possible.

Now, some of you might be thinking that it's okay because your insurance will pay for it.  Well, you'd be wrong.  First of all medical and dental insurance are separate things.  Just because you have medical insurance doesn't mean they'll cover dental procedures - they won't.  Also, just because you have insurance doesn't mean they'll cover it (and I don't just mean they won't cover all of it, sometimes they won't cover any of it!).  The insurance is also expensive....we pay $97/month and most American's will be paying closer to $200 - 300/month.  Then there's the excess and then also co-insurance on top of that each time you attend (co-insurances are expensive too....usually ranging from $150 per ER trip to 40% of the final bill!).  So anyway, I looked into the dental insurance thing....wouldn't you guess it - they won't cover it.  This is because the filling was put in prior to taking out the policy so it's deemed pre-existing.

So on the whole I would say the NHS is a definite improvement.  Quite how a first world country can accept that it would be okay to bankrupt people over treatment - or worse put people in the predicament that they have to make financial decisions that would dictate the outcome of their lives is kind of ridiculous.  I guess if you cut out the profiteering and make it a service at least you can be confident that people have your best interests in mind.  Also, if it came to it I'd rather not have to make a decisions about which finger to re-attach based on cost!