Just to kick this one off, I have had no health insurance for almost 15 years and go to a doc in a box when absolutely necessary.
"Why that's insane!", you say.
No, the US health care system is insane. This was immediately obvious to me when I emigrated to the US from Canada 20 years ago.
The biggest hindrance to entrepreneurial activity in the US is the health care morass. I was discussing this with a friend 4 days ago. He just graduated college this past spring semester and longer has school mandated coverage.
Hours later he took a mallet to the face playing bike polo and went to the emergency room where they told him that just to look at him would cost 400 dollars. Any services would would be more and they did not know how much more until he agreed to pay the 400 bucks.
Fortunately a mutual friend is a nurse and he was able to text him and get a surgeon to unofficially give him a look over and let him know he did not need stitches.
He was not convinced when first discussed the issue but less than 24 hours later he agreed based on his new experience as a member of the newly uninsured.
As a Canadian who will be moving soon to the US, can you give me some advice re: medical care? I'm looking into buying health insurance above and beyond what my employer is offering (which is quite honestly extremely poor).
I find the entire thought of the health care system being private to be completely unnerving, and as you put it, insane. Why a man has to worry about his bodily well-being to the extent that if he has to give up his life savings for an accidental injury is confusing to me. This hardly even seems civilized, much less wise.
It not only makes no sense individually, it is also insane as a whole - by not covering preventative care for everyone you are increasing the virulence of your disease outbreaks, and even in non-contagious diseases and conditions you're still spending much more money in the end than if you nipped the problem in the bud via regular checkups and whatnot.
I know most of HN is American, and you have to excuse me for saying this, but as someone who's never lived long-term in the US your health care situation seems like something out of a bad dream. I cannot imagine the fear that you guys live with - the fear that I'm about to face in a couple months time. Oy.
The part that's frightening is major medical expenses. Any trip to the Emergency Room or stay in the hospital is going to run into the thousands, and easily into the tens of thousands of dollars. The regular non-emergent basic stuff can and should be taken care of at an Urgent Care or at your primary care physician's office. Those visits are usually less than a couple hundred bucks. And, those can be managed by paying cash.
They're a non-profit consumer advocacy company, and my $25 yearly subscription to their website pays for itself every single year. Great information and great advice.
If you move somewhere Kaiser Permanente serves, I've been very happy with them. For all the histronics about how bad the health care system is in the US, I've found the care is quite good if you do some research and are willing to pay for it. My policy is about $250 per month, covers all emergency and severe horrible things, I can visit my doctor within a few days of scheduling, I can get a metabolic panel and have the results emailed to me for $10, etc.
Looks like Seattle isn't covered by them - any other suggestions for providers? I've looked at Blue Cross, but I'm really quite clueless when it comes to which ones to go with and which ones to avoid. Any help would be awesome.
For the record, the company's offering is through Aetna - and my brief overview online comes up with some pretty bad horror stories. What's the general impression of them on HN?
I had them for a couple years through my last employer ("AHF POS II" policy in California, FWIW), with some moderate medical expenses, and I have no complaints.
When I had to buy insurance on my own I ended up with KP after similar online research, scared off by the stories too, but there seem to be horror stories about all the providers; as far as I can tell, at best you can only choose a lower probability of them.
I hope you are at least putting away a good chunk of change so that you have some cushion if disaster strikes. A mallet to the face is one thing, but what about a progressive disease like cancer?
