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I thought health care was free in most of europe.

by dmd 4y ago

autotune 4y ago
Less than the $3500 bill I received for taking an ambulance in SF several years back. And that was with health insurance.
jacobyoder 4y ago
Maybe he's not a citizen or has whatever national insurance? I had a family member (US citizen) have to pay for hospitalization in belgium. On checking out the staff were apologetic. "This is going to be expensive...". It was somewhere around a few hundred USD for him being in for ... 3-4 days, IIRC. It was insanely nothing. "Maybe you can contact your employer for reimbursement" he was told a couple of times.
saiya-jin 4y ago
It depends per country, generally its free or super cheap, but there are some exceptions to services covered and ambulance can be one of them (its around 500$ in Switzerland - this still could lead to paying 0$ for patient depending on situation, don't know about other countries). And dental care is probably not free anywhere anymore that I am aware of, but its still cheaper to take trans-atlantic plane to get some more complex work done in cheaper places here than doing it in bigger cities in US.
- Reason077 4y ago
  The UK has free dental for those who qualify [1]. [1] https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-free-nhs-dental-treatment-in-england/ https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-...
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
It's free* with many caveats. *Emergency services are free in Austria but only for valid medical emergencies. If you voluntarily drink yourself to death like my friend did, they don't cover that and will send you the bill. You're expected to have private accident insurance to cover such incidents and various sports and free time injuries that are also not fully covered by the mandatory government insurance.
narag 4y ago
I thought health care was free in most of europe. Ambulances can be private. In Spain, if you contact the Social Security and it's them that send the ambulance, I understand it will be free. But if you call a private service, they will charge. In a case like that, I would have called police instead. It's the safest option.
durnygbur 4y ago
> I thought health care was free in most of europe. In countries where it's "free" one pays high monthly insurances, in countries with dysfunctional public healthcare systems services cost a fraction of what you'd pay in US but the salaries are proportionally lower.

I thought health care was free in most of europe.

by dmd 4y ago

I thought health care was free in most of europe.

Less than the $3500 bill I received for taking an ambulance in SF several years back. And that was with health insurance.

jacobyoder 4y ago

Maybe he's not a citizen or has whatever national insurance? I had a family member (US citizen) have to pay for hospitalization in belgium. On checking out the staff were apologetic. "This is going to be expensive...". It was somewhere around a few hundred USD for him being in for ... 3-4 days, IIRC. It was insanely nothing. "Maybe you can contact your employer for reimbursement" he was told a couple of times.

saiya-jin 4y ago

It depends per country, generally its free or super cheap, but there are some exceptions to services covered and ambulance can be one of them (its around 500$ in Switzerland - this still could lead to paying 0$ for patient depending on situation, don't know about other countries). And dental care is probably not free anywhere anymore that I am aware of, but its still cheaper to take trans-atlantic plane to get some more complex work done in cheaper places here than doing it in bigger cities in US.

Reason077 4y ago
The UK has free dental for those who qualify [1]. [1] https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-free-nhs-dental-treatment-in-england/ https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-...

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

It's free* with many caveats. *Emergency services are free in Austria but only for valid medical emergencies. If you voluntarily drink yourself to death like my friend did, they don't cover that and will send you the bill. You're expected to have private accident insurance to cover such incidents and various sports and free time injuries that are also not fully covered by the mandatory government insurance.

narag 4y ago

I thought health care was free in most of europe. Ambulances can be private. In Spain, if you contact the Social Security and it's them that send the ambulance, I understand it will be free. But if you call a private service, they will charge. In a case like that, I would have called police instead. It's the safest option.

durnygbur 4y ago

> I thought health care was free in most of europe. In countries where it's "free" one pays high monthly insurances, in countries with dysfunctional public healthcare systems services cost a fraction of what you'd pay in US but the salaries are proportionally lower.