Hard to get past

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He he that's funny. I told someone recently that I've eaten kangaroo, and they looked at me like I just told them I eat puppies for breakfast!
 
Bluesbrkr said:
Not an aussie here, lol... I have pretty decent insurance here in the states. but last year, when I first was diagnosed, I spent a good amount of money, up to my maximum out of pocket, which was $2500. It was all mainly on the MRI's, EEG's, And video EEG. still working on paying that off. Already a good chunk into my max this year as well.

Insurance has definitely taken a turn for the worse in the last couple of years (jee.. wonder why...ummm obama care maybe??). at least the price of all my meds are pretty cheap with my ins.

Hopefully.. things will get better in the coming years here in the US.

cheers!
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Yeah, the insurance we have changed things this year too for us. Not for the good either :( Our deductable went from $400 a year, to $1000 a year for each individual. Which totally sucks! When I had my VEEG in march, I had already met my deductable, but this year, thats the case. At least since July 1st when our deductable went back to "0" again. Our copays went up, everything went up. I cant get my medication at our local pharmacy, and have to go through express scripts and can only get a 3 month supply, instead of the 6 months supply I was getting before. Plus they dont honor any savings cards. I wish the health care system would make good changes and not the opposite!
 
The cost of any one item of prescription here is £7.40, which would mean for a months supply of my Keppra and Tegretol it should come to 14.80. Anyone with a long term health condition gets medication for free though, otherwise I suppose I'd probably be spending quite a lot.

The real killer over here is dentistry. Even with an NHS dentist it can easily add up to a weeks wage for one visit. Depending what you have done of course.
 
Hey Loopy Lou,

Yeah the NHS is great for that - I'm a UK citizen myself, and although medication in Australia isn't THAT expensive, acknowledgement (that's how I see it) that people who have a chronic illness (which they didn't choose to have or do anything to induce it!) is great. We have "Bulk Billing" here - I don't know if the NHS has it - where some doctors don't charge for consults, they just bill Medicare. Excellent seeing as I don't really fancy paying just to spend 1 minute getting a prescription! If only Australia could take a cue from the NHS and stop charging me for meds...
 
Nah we don't have to pay at all to see the doctor or for a trip to A&E and stuff. That's a major advantage. I'd say the stuff that costs the most here is going to the opticians or the dentist. Luckily I get the dentist free which is a relief considering the amount of work I need doing for broken teeth etc! Most people usually have to pay though.

I'm quite happy to sacrifice speed for free meds. Kind of used to the amount of time the NHS takes to do anything lol
 
The United States is trying to pull off a National Healthcare System but it is a huge failure. Stupid Obamacare. The only benefit is that previously it was nearly impossible to get any kind of insurance if you had a pre-existing condition, unless you had group insurance through an employer. But even with our NHS prices are outrageous. It's a huge letdown. But then again when you have a country which has 320 million people in it I can imagine it would be hard to keep track of things.
 
momof3boys said:
Yeah, the insurance we have changed things this year too for us. Not for the good either :( Our deductable went from $400 a year, to $1000 a year for each individual. Which totally sucks! When I had my VEEG in march, I had already met my deductable, but this year, thats the case. At least since July 1st when our deductable went back to "0" again. Our copays went up, everything went up. I cant get my medication at our local pharmacy, and have to go through express scripts and can only get a 3 month supply, instead of the 6 months supply I was getting before. Plus they dont honor any savings cards. I wish the health care system would make good changes and not the opposite!
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The worst is that with all the insurance costs and horrible changes, my company went to some weird in house concierge medical system instead of standard insurance. It's great for the 90% of people who see the doctor once or twice a year, or have minor illnesses, but for those who have conditions that require seeing a specialist and have to have constant health care and tests... it is a killer! Basically, there is no co-pay, and you have to pay 100% of everything not covered by the concierge doctors, which is everything but basic medical needs, up to the $1000 deductible, including office visits to specialists, pretty much all testing and lab work... it is ridiculous! Once you reach the $1000, it then goes to a strict 80/20 until yearly out of pocket max.

It really screws anyone with serious medical conditions. They just started this in July, and I'm already up to my neck in bills. I hate what has happened to healthcare and insurance here in the states...
 
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i am not going to get into the politics because this isn't the place, but our supposed NHC needs to be removed. It has forced private insurance companies to overcharge and change their policies. My sister has cystic fibrosis and her medication without insurance cost $27,000 a month. My dad works for the federal government and in order for them to even cover the medications my mom has to use her insurance as well. If my dad and mom didn't have insurance my sister would be screwed and probably dead by now. And she is getting a double lung transplant in a few months. Imagine if she had Obamacare. It would be nuts. She had a friend in Canada who had CF. And in Canada they have national healthcare. The girl forked out a ton of money for a mediocre hospital to do a single lung transplant and she died a week later.
 
I suppose that probably the only reason it works over here is because the UK (england, Wales, Scotland, northern Ireland) is so much smaller than the US. Not entirely sure of our actual population.

People can get private healthcare here if they choose to, I suppose the service is a hell of a lot better but it costs a bomb. It's only rich people who do that.
 
Yeah when it comes to health care costs, its just terriable how much we way each month for our insurance! For a family of 5, my husband has all of us through this insurance at work, and we pay over $550 a month for health insurance! Its rediculous!
 
I pay $500.00 a month for health insurance for just me alone (I'm self-employed). And it's only that "cheap" because I'm limited to a particular network of PCPs and specialists.
 
I guess I'm "lucky", I don't pay anything. Perks of being in the military? Maybe... I am not surehow people without insurance do this though. I went to go pick up my prescriptions and for one month the total cost would have been $1275. I know they have programs to help people, but really? $1275? Come'on people...thats just ridiculous. I mean, these are prescriptions I could potentually be on for the rest of my life, I'm only 31!
 
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