– We’ve been here before, readers. But I feel like I need to revisit the subject again for the edification and amazement of my U.S. readers.
– I just bought New Zealand Health Insurance to cover myself when I’m in the USA for 78 days from July 8th to September 23rd this year.
– Cost in New Zealand dollars was $386.55 which is currently about $302.00 in U.S. dollars.
– And this policy is much more than just simple healthcare coverage. It’s also travel insurance for lost baggage, the consequences of cancelled flights and other things.
– If I was to get seriously sick in the USA (a potentially very expensive thing to do), the New Zealand insurance folks will fly me home to New Zealand on their dime and I’ll be treated here.
– When I was still in the U.S., married and running a business, we paid each about $425.00 a month for our medical coverage. There was a $2500 deductible on the policy so we had to spend that amount each up front before we ever got a dime back from the insurance company for medical expenses. And, even then, when they did begin to pay, it was only 80% of our costs.
– So, in the U.S., I had to play $20.82 per day (see Note 1) to get 80% coverage and with this New Zealand policy, which is covering me on the other side of the planet, I’m paying $3.87 per day (see Note 2) for 100% coverage. Interesting, eh?
– Some months ago, I had a small heart attack here in New Zealand. You can read about it here: ➡
– The long and the short of it is I went to an emergency clinic, I had a ride in an ambulance, I spent two nights in the hospital, I had an angioplasty and I had a stent inserted into one of my coronary arteries. My total cost was less than $200 dollars ($164.00 U.S.).
– Many in the U.S. have a hard time believing that the country has been so thoroughly captured by corporations. And many still believe the country is a fully functional representative democracy. But both assumptions are seriously flawed.
– The outrageously high cost of medical care in the U.S. is because enormous profits are being taken from the system by the medical corporations.
– And our representative democracy has been deeply corrupted by big money. Money that pays to keep the country’s laws arranged so that the looting can continue.
– Don’t believe it? Then ask yourself how the richest country in the world is also the only major western democracy in which this sort of stuff goes on?
– Dennis
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Note 1 – that’s $425/month * 12 = $5100.00/year and if I divide that by 365, it is $13.97/day. But then in order to get any thing paid to me, I also have to spend the $2500 deductible which is another $6.85/day so the total I have to spend per day in the U.S. to get to the 80% coverage point is $13.97 + $6.85 = $20.82/day.
Note 2 – I’m paying $302.00 (in U.S. dollars) for 78 days so I’m paying $3.87/day to get to the 100% coverage point.
Tags: Healthcare, US Medical System