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Short answer: because of regulations. Just to give you an example how ridiculous the US health care is. I used to live in California and I had an inflamed wisd

Short answer: because of regulations. Just to give you an example how ridiculous the US health care is. I used to live in California and I had an inflamed wisdom tooth. It cost me so much to get it out (fully insured, premium+, high income insurance) that the amount I had to pay __after__ insurance (out of pocket) would have been enough to buy a ticket to go to Europe, visit a random country get the operation done, fully pay for (without insurance coverage) it and fly home to Cali.

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mrkstu 6y ago
The state of Utah flies employees to Mexico to fill prescriptions there because: "The cost difference is big enough that the state's program can pay for each patient's flight, provide them with a $500-per-trip bonus, and still save tens of thousands of dollars" https://www.pharmacist.com/article/utah-sends-employees-mexico-lower-prescription-prices https://www.pharmacist.com/article/utah-sends-employees-mexi...
Barrin92 6y ago
>would have been enough to buy a ticket to go to Europe, visit a random country get the operation done, fully pay for (without insurance coverage) it and fly home to Cali. This isn't even uncommon among people in Europe. A lot of people from Western Europe get on a 50 bucks Ryanair flight to Hungary or Romania, get their dental work done and fly back home.
- StreamBright 6y ago
  The difference is the price of ticket to fly over a continent + the Atlantic Ocean vs fly over few countries. On the top of that, the other reason why people in some Western Countries (for example Ireland) do this is very surprising: quality of service. Ireland used to not have emergency dental service and even the general dentistry was not that great while being much more expensive (not US level though) than in Hungary, Romania or Poland. There is an entire industry specialised in Hungary and Poland to server Western clients.
cloverich 6y ago
FWIW health insurance and dental insurance are very different - dental insurance is always separate from health insurance and often covers very little, often nothing beyond checkups. The last time I had a plan offerred it covered up to $1200... but cost $100 a month. The cost was actually equivalent to the price of checkups. I'm not sure why this played out the way it did -- probably because it is procedure focused.
- StreamBright 6y ago
  FYI the dental insurance company forced me to submit the claim against the general insurance company and only wanted to deal with the case when it bounced back. I had a premium dental insurance at the time. This is what insurance companies can do in the USA and most people who are moving that are not aware of it, because it is so unimaginable that one of the richest countries of the west has an insurance system like that.
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mrkstu 6y ago

The state of Utah flies employees to Mexico to fill prescriptions there because: "The cost difference is big enough that the state's program can pay for each patient's flight, provide them with a $500-per-trip bonus, and still save tens of thousands of dollars" https://www.pharmacist.com/article/utah-sends-employees-mexico-lower-prescription-prices https://www.pharmacist.com/article/utah-sends-employees-mexi...

Barrin92 6y ago

>would have been enough to buy a ticket to go to Europe, visit a random country get the operation done, fully pay for (without insurance coverage) it and fly home to Cali. This isn't even uncommon among people in Europe. A lot of people from Western Europe get on a 50 bucks Ryanair flight to Hungary or Romania, get their dental work done and fly back home.

StreamBright 6y ago
The difference is the price of ticket to fly over a continent + the Atlantic Ocean vs fly over few countries. On the top of that, the other reason why people in some Western Countries (for example Ireland) do this is very surprising: quality of service. Ireland used to not have emergency dental service and even the general dentistry was not that great while being much more expensive (not US level though) than in Hungary, Romania or Poland. There is an entire industry specialised in Hungary and Poland to server Western clients.

cloverich 6y ago

FWIW health insurance and dental insurance are very different - dental insurance is always separate from health insurance and often covers very little, often nothing beyond checkups. The last time I had a plan offerred it covered up to $1200... but cost $100 a month. The cost was actually equivalent to the price of checkups. I'm not sure why this played out the way it did -- probably because it is procedure focused.

StreamBright 6y ago
FYI the dental insurance company forced me to submit the claim against the general insurance company and only wanted to deal with the case when it bounced back. I had a premium dental insurance at the time. This is what insurance companies can do in the USA and most people who are moving that are not aware of it, because it is so unimaginable that one of the richest countries of the west has an insurance system like that.

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