02-07-2015, 10:27 AM
Certain political parties in the UK are advocating a US-style health insurance system instead of our National Health Service. This scares the crap out of me.
I'm currently being treated for cancer here, and the treatment isn't costing me a penny. This is just as well as I haven't been able to work since the end of February, and my wife has cut her hours by about 60% in order to be with me and drive me to hospital etc.
Here's why it scares the crap out of me. So far I have had 2 CT scans, a CT-PET scan, an MRI scan, three cycles of chemotherapy using Bleomycin, Cisplatin and Etoposide, two fine needle biopsies of my lymph nodes, an operation to remove a testicle, and somewhere in excess of four weeks as an inpatient in the hospital. I've also been taken to hospital by ambulance twice.
The thought of what that lot would have cost my family in terms of insurance deductibles makes my hair go white. Or at least it would if I hadn't lost it all.
However the really scary part if yet to come.
I was offered another job, so I gave my resignation and my employment was scheduled to end on February 28th. My new job was due to begin on March 2nd. I had a Doctor's appointment at the hospital on February 25th for some stomach pains I'd been having. I was admitted to hospital for a CT scan on that day and I was told I had cancer on February 26th. I was told that I would be unable to start my new job on the following week.
I'm presuming that under a US-style employment-based health insurance scheme, any cover that I had would have ended on February 28th , meaning that I would have had to pay for all of those treatments in their entirety. I could have sold my house and made my family homeless, but what if that wasn't enough?
My question to American members is this: Why is a large part of America so firmly against a centralised, fully funded health system? How would you have funded my scenario above if it happened to you?
I'm currently being treated for cancer here, and the treatment isn't costing me a penny. This is just as well as I haven't been able to work since the end of February, and my wife has cut her hours by about 60% in order to be with me and drive me to hospital etc.
Here's why it scares the crap out of me. So far I have had 2 CT scans, a CT-PET scan, an MRI scan, three cycles of chemotherapy using Bleomycin, Cisplatin and Etoposide, two fine needle biopsies of my lymph nodes, an operation to remove a testicle, and somewhere in excess of four weeks as an inpatient in the hospital. I've also been taken to hospital by ambulance twice.
The thought of what that lot would have cost my family in terms of insurance deductibles makes my hair go white. Or at least it would if I hadn't lost it all.
However the really scary part if yet to come.
I was offered another job, so I gave my resignation and my employment was scheduled to end on February 28th. My new job was due to begin on March 2nd. I had a Doctor's appointment at the hospital on February 25th for some stomach pains I'd been having. I was admitted to hospital for a CT scan on that day and I was told I had cancer on February 26th. I was told that I would be unable to start my new job on the following week.
I'm presuming that under a US-style employment-based health insurance scheme, any cover that I had would have ended on February 28th , meaning that I would have had to pay for all of those treatments in their entirety. I could have sold my house and made my family homeless, but what if that wasn't enough?
My question to American members is this: Why is a large part of America so firmly against a centralised, fully funded health system? How would you have funded my scenario above if it happened to you?