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As far as I can tell from the facts given in the EU you would have paid about the same amount the author had to pay out of his own pocket (~ 700 USD). If you ha
by moozeek 15y ago
As far as I can tell from the facts given in the EU you would have paid about the same amount the author had to pay out of his own pocket (~ 700 USD). If you had no health insurance at all.
- arethuza 15y agoThe countries in the EU all have pretty different ways of paying for health care. In the UK if you went to a NHS hospital (which you would do if it was an emergency) you would pay nothing - there would never be any charges for the hospital treatment and drugs administered in a hospital aren't charged. NB: Note that NHS is based on treatment being "free at the point of delivery" - everyone knows that it's not "free" and we pay for it through NI and other taxes and people who can't (or even won't) still get the same treatment.
- viandante 15y agoAs far as I know in EU public insurance is mandatory, so you would never pay such ammount.
- _delirium 15y agoIt varies a lot by country. In Denmark, all hospital visits are free to anyone, whether a resident or visitor. In other countries, non-EU visitors to an ER might pay substantial amounts, though usually still quite a bit less than in the US. Also, some EU countries tie insurance to payroll-tax contributions, so the unemployed may not be covered.
- viandante 15y agoWell, been living in 4 European countries and never paid anything but in mine (Italy). I am also pretty sure unemployed are covered too. Don't know in Germany, where I still can't get how insurance works, but I would guess there is a way to get cover there too.
- gcp 15y agoIn Germany its optional starting from a certain income level. (At least it was x years ago)
- lflux 15y agoFar from. In Stockholm, for a child she would have paid 120 SEK (~17 USD) for an ER visit. That is assuming she was a resident or in possesion of an EU/EEC insurance card. Going price for an ER visit without EU insurance would be 1650 SEK (~240 USD). So not close even there.
- sp332 15y agoHow do the doctors get paid if the patient is only paying $17 per visit?
- afterburner 15y agoLast I checked Sweden doesn't have a 0% tax rate.
- Symmetry 15y agoThat's heavily subsidized, of course, but part of it is also that doctors are only paid about half as much in Europe, on average, as in the US.
- arethuza 15y agoYou also need to take into account how much it costs to become a doctor in the EU and the fact that in places like the UK doctors trained and employed by the NHS are free to go and augment their income by doing work on private paying patients.
- cstross 15y agoThe fixed cost per visit is not a payment for treatment, but a tax; it's notionally there to stop people using the system excessively. (See also the prescription tax in England, although there the average cost of a prescribed medicine <= the prescription tax. Here in Scotland we abolished the NHS prescription tax a year ago; the system didn't subsequently collapse under the weight of freeloaders asking for prescriptions for stuff they could buy over the counter. Draw your own conclusions as to whether such taxes make sense ...)
- atirip 15y agoFirst, kind Sir, describe me believeable scenario about how exactly you managed to live uninsured in EU and then we shall talk.
- moozeek 15y agoThat's pretty easy, at least in Germany: if you are self employed you are not automatically insured, you need to pick a plan from a private insurance company on your own (or go with one of the expensive "voluntary" plans of the public insurances). If you don't, you simply don't have insurance. I don't know what happens when they find out that you're uninsured, however it's possible to have no health insurance. At the doctors or at the hospital just say you have private insurance and you'll get a invoice after the treatment. My whole point is, the invoice amount would be not quite close to what that Amarican hospital charged. [Edited for clarification]
- atirip 15y agoHmm, thats news for me. Here also self employed are insured. Even homeless are kind of ensured. Ok, if you mean that rare case when you bill in the name of your company, but do not pay yourself any salary, then yes, this is one rare way.