3 ms·

I live in a country with tax-paid medical (and dental, vision, everything necessary, with some minor exclusions) - they basically take 12.92% of your pretax ear

I live in a country with tax-paid medical (and dental, vision, everything necessary, with some minor exclusions) - they basically take 12.92% of your pretax earnigs for medical + ~30eur extra. I pay a lot of money for those services, but i get really shitty service for some of those - eg. dental. I see a dark caries spot on my tooth, and basically if I'm good enough to eat (not too much pain), my waiting time is ~6months+ (pre-corona time, probably a lot longer now). I can go to a private dentist and get a filling, but I have to pay for the service. There is no way to either opt-out of eg. dental, or to get a part of the service paid by our national insurance (eg same price as the insurer would pay a government assigned dentist, you just pay a difference). We have a bunch of papers with a bunch of words promising <30 day wait times, but in practice, the wait time are huge. Yes, if you cut your arm off, they will fix you, but the dental (and many other branches) are pretty bad.

redler 6y ago
Dental insurance of any kind is pretty rare in the US. Large employers may offer this to their employees, but even then it’s a situation of very high coinsurance for any procedure of substance, and covered procedures are limited. So however bad your national dental system may be, it at least provides some baseline option for everyone — including the poor, the homeless, the jobless, and employees of small businesses alike.
- selimthegrim 6y ago
  Let me be more frank, it is a scam and nothing more than prepayment for cleanings and X-rays in the vast majority of cases. The only time I have not paid with cash is when I was on Medicaid.
ClumsyPilot 6y ago
My understanding is that post 2008, Dental and eye care in UK has been cut, and going private is the norm. Its is bot representative how NHS treats injuries, failing organs, etc. That being said my experience with Czech system of mandatory insurance has been better.
Grim-444 6y ago
"they basically take 12.92% of your pretax earnings" Could you clarify this? Is the 12.92% your entire tax burden or the extra amount for medical? If the former, I currently pay $92 a month for health and dental insurance. I made nearly 250K last year. 12.92% of 250K is $2,691 per month. That's .. quite the difference.
- amelius 6y ago
  > $2,691 per month per year, I suppose.
- necovek 6y ago
  Many European countries have a high health insurance tax rate, but capped to a certain income. Eg. Germany has a 14.6% rate for health insurance[1], but capped at 56,250 EUR of income, thus making it capped at 8,212.50 EUR annually, or 684.38 EUR monthly. Still a lot more than your $92 a month :) [1]https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/germany/individual/other-taxes https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/germany/individual/other-taxes

redler 6y ago

Dental insurance of any kind is pretty rare in the US. Large employers may offer this to their employees, but even then it’s a situation of very high coinsurance for any procedure of substance, and covered procedures are limited. So however bad your national dental system may be, it at least provides some baseline option for everyone — including the poor, the homeless, the jobless, and employees of small businesses alike.

selimthegrim 6y ago
Let me be more frank, it is a scam and nothing more than prepayment for cleanings and X-rays in the vast majority of cases. The only time I have not paid with cash is when I was on Medicaid.

ClumsyPilot 6y ago

My understanding is that post 2008, Dental and eye care in UK has been cut, and going private is the norm. Its is bot representative how NHS treats injuries, failing organs, etc. That being said my experience with Czech system of mandatory insurance has been better.

Grim-444 6y ago

"they basically take 12.92% of your pretax earnings" Could you clarify this? Is the 12.92% your entire tax burden or the extra amount for medical? If the former, I currently pay $92 a month for health and dental insurance. I made nearly 250K last year. 12.92% of 250K is $2,691 per month. That's .. quite the difference.

amelius 6y ago
> $2,691 per month per year, I suppose.
necovek 6y ago
Many European countries have a high health insurance tax rate, but capped to a certain income. Eg. Germany has a 14.6% rate for health insurance[1], but capped at 56,250 EUR of income, thus making it capped at 8,212.50 EUR annually, or 684.38 EUR monthly. Still a lot more than your $92 a month :) [1]https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/germany/individual/other-taxes https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/germany/individual/other-taxes