One coronavirus survivor manages her medical bills in color-coded folders: green, red and tan for different types of documents. A man whose father died of the virus last fall uses an Excel spreadsheet to organize the outstanding debts. It has 457 rows, one for each of his father’s bills, totaling over $1 million.
These are people who are facing the financial version of long-haul Covid: They’ve found their lives and finances upended by medical bills resulting from a bout with the virus.
Their desks and coffee tables have stacks of billing documents. They are fluent in the jargon of coronavirus medical coding, after hundreds of hours of phone calls discussing the charges with hospitals, doctors and insurers.
“People think there is some relief program for medical bills for coronavirus patients,” said Jennifer Miller, a psychologist near Milwaukee who is working with a lawyer to challenge thousands in outstanding debt from two emergency room visits last year. “It just doesn’t exist.”
Read more at:
Covid Killed His Father. Then Came $1 Million in Medical Bills. - The New York Times
Showing posts with label costly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label costly. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Friday, August 28, 2020
The Netherlands: How the Netherlands got universal health insurance with a private market - "but polls show citizens still find healthcare too costly for the average citizen"
Critics argue that the Netherlands made a mistake in handing over so
much of its health care to the private market.
Dutch patients face higher financial barriers to care than their peers in more socialized systems, like Germany, Britain, Spain, and spending has accelerated in recent years, trends the critics blame on the privatized market. average cost to a Dutch citizen for health insurance is about 1,400 euros, or $1,615, annually.People with lower incomes get additional government assistance to reduce their payments.
The government also collects contributions from employers to help fund the insurance scheme and covers the cost for children; revenues are spread among the insurers based on the health status of their customers. Public financing covers about 75 percent of the system’s costs; the insurers have also generally operated as nonprofits.< The benefits are designed to encourage cost-efficient use of medical care by patients. Dutch patients can visit a primary care doctor for free. For a visit to the hospital, they will need to pay toward their deductible.
The annual deductible is today capped at €385 ($429), although people can choose to pay a lower monthly premium in exchange for a higher deductible — up to €885 ($980). That is still well below the typical deductible in America (more than $1,600 on average for workers on their employer’s plan, and many people have a higher deductible than that).
The system has more or less delivered universal coverage. More than 99 percent of Dutch people have insurance; people with conscientious objections are exempted from the mandate to buy insurance. The system is designed to funnel people with minor problems to a general practitioner to free up the ER for more emergencies. But Dutch patients weren’t thrilled with the idea of the co-ops when they first started nearly 20 years ago, wary about seeing somebody other than their normal physician.
Dutch patients face higher financial barriers to care than their peers in more socialized systems, like Germany, Britain, Spain, and spending has accelerated in recent years, trends the critics blame on the privatized market. average cost to a Dutch citizen for health insurance is about 1,400 euros, or $1,615, annually.People with lower incomes get additional government assistance to reduce their payments.
The government also collects contributions from employers to help fund the insurance scheme and covers the cost for children; revenues are spread among the insurers based on the health status of their customers. Public financing covers about 75 percent of the system’s costs; the insurers have also generally operated as nonprofits.< The benefits are designed to encourage cost-efficient use of medical care by patients. Dutch patients can visit a primary care doctor for free. For a visit to the hospital, they will need to pay toward their deductible.
The annual deductible is today capped at €385 ($429), although people can choose to pay a lower monthly premium in exchange for a higher deductible — up to €885 ($980). That is still well below the typical deductible in America (more than $1,600 on average for workers on their employer’s plan, and many people have a higher deductible than that).
The system has more or less delivered universal coverage. More than 99 percent of Dutch people have insurance; people with conscientious objections are exempted from the mandate to buy insurance. The system is designed to funnel people with minor problems to a general practitioner to free up the ER for more emergencies. But Dutch patients weren’t thrilled with the idea of the co-ops when they first started nearly 20 years ago, wary about seeing somebody other than their normal physician.
Read more at: How the Netherlands got universal health insurance with a private market - Vox
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
The Netherlands: the Dutch Healthcare system is among the most costly in Europe - by RM
Dutch citizens did not get a good deal under the current Dutch health insurance law.
It has become an extremely expensive business to get health Insurance in the Netherlands.
Especially if you add up all the costs.
First of all there is the obligatory deductible of Euro 385, then the monthly premium, which on average is around Euro 250 per month.
That makes a total "out of pocket expense" of Euro 3,385 per year, and even than you are not there yet.
There are also a variety of other provisions, whereby certain costs incurred for pharmaceuticals, and medical services, are not reimbursed.
Not only is Dutch healthcare too costly for the average citizen, it also is a cash machine for Dutch Insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry.
Healthcare Insurance services and costs should also be uniformly regulated throughout the EU, which is not the case right now.
It is high time that the "political establishment" and the voters start paying more attention to the fact that this issue needs to get fixed without delay.
Healthcare Insurance services and costs should also be uniformly regulated throughout the EU, which is not the case right now.
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