I'm a US citizen, people in other countries, what do you think when you read stories like these about the US health care system?
I'd like to know other non-US citizen's opinions on your health care system are when you read a story like this. I know there are worse places in the world to receive health care, and better. What runs through your heads when you have a medical emergency?
A little background on my question:
My son was having trouble breathing after having a cold for a couple of days and we needed to stop and take the time to see if our insurance would be accepted at the closest emergency room so we didn't end up with a huge bill (like 2000$-5000$). This was a pretty involved ~10 minute process of logging into our insurance carrier, and unsuccessfully finding the answer there. Then calling the hospital and having them tell us to look it up by scrolling through some links using the local search tool on their website. This gave me some serious pause, what if it was a real emergency, like the kind where you have no time to call and see if the closest hospital takes your insurance.
I was offered by my employer to move to the USA with the husband and children to set up a local team for a few years and then return to Europe. Didn’t have questions about the pay, housing, nope. I had questions about healthcare. I usually end up once a year in the ER for myself, last stint was a miscarriage over Christmas with 6 ER meetings but I have a shit ankle and break various bones on the yearly because I don’t pay attention to where I walk. Add children: usual sickness plus all the stupid shit they do and end up in the ER for. Asked is the insurance had a zero deductible or something similar to what we have. Long story short, I didn’t want to leave our healthcare system and we stayed in Europe as all they offered wasn’t up to par with what we got.
Usually the jobs in the US pay better. I know people who moved from Europe to expensive areas in the US. They take their kids to the doctors all the time. It's worth it.
Also, you can just go to urgent care instead of the hospital. If you are going there a lot, you just learn which ones take your insurance.
The pay was on par with NYC finance salaries but due to social inflation, i didn’t see how it was worth it to move due to potential medical costs getting out of hand.
Just curious- if I get hit by a car and it shatters my femur and I don't have insurance, which urgent care facility is going to allow me to do the necessary months of physical therapy I can't afford?
US jobs need to pay better for the chance of sickness and bankruptcy you'll face