Health Insurance Coop
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 14th, 2009 4:34 am by HL
Health Insurance Coop
Moderate Democrats, perhaps cowed by Limbaugh’s “socialized medicine” trope seem to be backing away from the public plan option. Their substitute is a non profit insurance cooperative. “I am inclined, and I think the committee is inclined, toward a co-op,”…
Neocons Using Iran Election To Push For War
It helps that the neocons in both the United States and Israel made emphatically clear how much they wanted Ahmedinejad re-elected. If they had kept their mouths shut — and pretended that they preferred the moderate Moussavi — they would…
June 14th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I am a self employed video producer.
I too have only a catastrophic healthcare plan with Blue Shield.
Deductible $10,000
Premiums for my wife and myself $900 per month
We’ve stopped using the American Healthcare system and now rely on medical in
Thailand. Every November we hop on a 14-18 fight to Bangkok where we take care of all our dental and medical needs. The service is excellent , the doctors are more than qualified, the equipment is often better than my local US hospital, and the price……usually about 1/10th the cost of the same procedure in the US.
At those prices you don’t even need insurance.
Last November I had a procedure done for a condition I have known as dysphagia. It’s a simple outpatient procedure in the US that costs about $2500 in the US. Cost in Thailand …$100.
The only reason I have health insurance in the US is in case of a catastrophic emergency like an auto accident or a heart attack.
Basically I pay for all my own medical bills out of pocket since my deductible is so high.
But because medical expenses are so outrageously expensive in the US , if you have any assets, you can’t afford not to have insurance. For example, our US hospital told us that the cost to replace a pacemaker battery could cost anywhere from $25,000-$50,000 if it involved a ONE NIGHT stay in the hospital!!!!
Cost in Thailand….for a brand new St. Jude pacemaker and a required one night’s stay in the best hospital in Bangkok….$5,000.
You can be sure we’ll be going to Thailand the next time the battery runs low.
Most Americans are unaware that medical costs in other countries is cheaper and often better than the medical care in the “for profit” US medical system. I can even get prescription drugs from the US at big discounts in Thailand. For example Fosamax with D costs us $22 per piill in the US. The same drug is $15 in Thailand. So we fill up in Bangkok everytime we go.,
The US medical system is DEAD ON ARRIVAL!!!