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Is private health care in Britain as expensive as it is here in the States?

This is a follow up to Should or should not the people of the United States offer taxpayer-funded health care to all citizens?
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tynamite
tynamite's avatar In my essay that I did on the History of Healthcare, dated 2009, I researched how much healthcare in America cost. I take it that people on Quora don't like to read essays, so here are some points I'm taking from that essay.


  • The average low/no deductible family pays $1200 a month for health insurance.
  • Single people pay more for health insurance than married couples. This is another form of extortion.
  • Health insurance companies pay food companies to make their food unhealthy, so that they get sick. This is another form of extortion.
  • Health insurance prices are not fixed across the board. This is a form of extortion.
  • Price fixing is allowed, under a laissez-faire system, despite being illegal. This is another form of extortion.
  • Disabled people cannot get a low-cost or even standard cover or price of healthcare.
  • Healthcare procedures which are experimental, cosmetic or not deemed medically necessary are not always covered under some health insurance plans. Sometimes they can back out of covering you for the most expensive of your viable procedures, for example if you have Cancer.
  • Health insurance rarely covers all the bills when you have a procedure done. Most plans cover 50-80% after you meet your deductible. The deductible is the amount of money a person has to pay before the insurance steps in. This is extortion again as deductibles are getting increasingly higher, to keep payouts low. This means that you're paying insurance for something that the insurer would do, but instead you're doing it yourself. The product is not fit for purpose, and if this was the UK, Trading Standards would be called and the company would probably settle or go bankrupt after being outed in court and the press. They want more money for doing less of their job, and the prices of healthcare, forces you to pay that.
  • 50% of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills and 75% of those people had health insurance. This is even more corruption, as the health insurance companies are colluding to make sure that there are no better alternatives, by creating the illusion of competition. You could attribute this to the rising deductible costs.
  • The $2.5 trillion US healthcare system is too expensive and amazingly leaves people without adequate healthcare. The Healthcare Senate Bill which makes health insurance mandatory, and fines people $750 for not paying it, will only increase the price of healthcare. This is extortion.
  • The good thing about the Healthcare Senate Bill is that sick people, like people with Cancer will no longer be denied by health insurance companies. The even worse thing about this, is that those people will pay a continually $750 fine, as it's cheaper than health insurance. That is a joke! The even worse thing is that because this fine doesn't go to health insurance companies, the quality of cover that these Cancer patients will get, will be abysmal and inadequate. This can only mean one thing. Insurance will get more expensive! If sick people can get cover without ever having to have prior insurance, the price will go up, to ensure that the insurance companies don't go bankrupt. That's common sense.
  • The Healthcare Senate Bill will require you to pay $4000 a year. If you do not pay this, you will face a $250,000 fine and 5 years in a Federal Prison. This will come into effect in 2014. Your taxes will become 45% higher too. This bill is being proposed by the Democrats. Thank Barack Obama.
  • On top of all this, you have to pay $20-50 to see your doctor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What exactly are you paying for?
You're hooked into the Mafia like crack cocaine.
You are not paying for healthcare. You are definitely not paying for insurance, whatever that means. You are paying to live. America is putting a shotgun to your head.


You know what?
Let's forget everything I said above this line. Forget about it.

=========================================
I live in the UK, and the standard of the NHS puts American healthcare to shame.

Imagine you have collapsed in the street tomorrow for some strange reason. You wake up in a hospital bed and stay there for 1 day. You collapsed because you were drunk. In fact you wasn't even collapsed, people just thought you were. You were drunk lying on the pavement, and someone decided to bring you to hospital without your knowledge.

A simple hospital stay averages about $10,000 a day, so if a person was to stay in hospital for 3 days, it would cost most people more than they earn in 1 year.

The average low/no deductible family pays $1200 a month for health insurance.

Let's compare this to the UK with their British companies.

=========================================
The average cost of health insurance in the UK is £50-60 a month. This works out as $79-95 a month.

Aviva Health Insurance
Health Cash Plan costs £20 a month.
It covers for day to day health costs, such as opticians and dentist bills.
Private Health Insurance costs within the average of £50-60, as I've just checked. Sometimes it the cost is cheaper than that, like for a 50 year old.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/privatemedical/7923913/Prescription-for-the-right-health-cover.html
http://www.thesite.org/healthandwellbeing/generalhealth/healthservices/privatehealthcare

Bupa Health Insurance (they have their own hospitals)
The have a 99p a day insurance. I don't know what that covers. I didn't bother to get a quote.

By the way, did you know that without people in the UK paying for private healthcare, the NHS would cease to exist? It's the minority who pay for health, who allow the NHS to provide for the majority. Isn't that amazing? That a tiny few set of people can pay very little, and by doing so, they help the majority to get so much? I find that amazing.
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tynamite
tynamite's avatar

Matthew

"By the way, did you know that without people in the UK paying for private healthcare, the NHS would cease to exist? It's the minority who pay for health, who allow the NHS to provide for the majority. Isn't that amazing? That a tiny few set of people can pay very little, and by doing so, they help the majority to get so much? I find that amazing"

I don't get what you mean here. How does private healthcare funding go to the NHS?
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tynamite
tynamite's avatar

Me

It doesn't. But if nobody paid for private healthcare in Britain, the NHS would be overstretched.
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tynamite
tynamite's avatar

Matthew

Oh right, got it.
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What's an assertion, and what should I type in?

Compesh is a question and answer (and debate) website, so before you make a debate, you better learn what an assertion is. I suppose you already know what a question is, and that you've typed it in the box. ;)

An assertion, is basically a statement you can make, that is either true or false.

Richer people have better health.

The question for that would be, Do richer people have better health?

And don't forget to make your assertion, match your question.

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