U.S. healthcare experience as a foreigner | SHOCKING truth

Why does it seem that no American doctor want to treat me? How did I end up in the emergency room? This is the story of my healthcare experience living in the U.S.

All of the things I am talking about are of course based on my personal experiences. It would be great if you could share your thoughts in the comments below. That way, we can all learn from each other :-) Thanks you for being here today!❤

❤❤❤*More videos YOU might enjoy *❤❤❤

❤❤❤*Quick Jump to Your Favorite Part*❤❤❤
00:00 – Intro
00:38 – German vs. American Health Insurance
04:03 – Why does no doctor want to treat me?
11:16 – Why I ended up in the emergency room
15:30 – What I love about the American health care system

❤❤❤*How to support me*❤❤❤
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❤❤❤*DISCLAIMER*❤❤❤
All of the things I am talking about are of course based on my personal experiences. While I am talking in general about German and American people, I know that not all Germans or Americans fit into all of these generalizations. I would love to hear your thoughts! So drop me a comment below! :-)

❤❤❤*ABOUT US*❤❤❤
We are a family of four who moved from Cologne, Germany to Boston, Massachusetts in July of 2021.

In my videos, I talk about our experiences as a family living abroad, cultural differences, things we like and dislike about living here, funny stories and our everyday life in the USA. And it all comes with a flavour of German directness ;-).

❤❤❤*Links*❤❤❤
Costs of Health Insurance in the U.S.:

❤❤❤*LET'S CONNECT!*❤❤❤

[josephlovinsky]

I recently had 2 VERY similar experiences with the US healthcare system. I live in the USA. I was born & raised here. I served almost 25 years in the US Military, so I naively thought that almost everything would be covered by my retired military insurance. I also thought the process of getting help would not be so incredibly difficult. You did NOTHING wrong. Your experience was very common, from the scheduling process to the last bill payment. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[MariaAlbanese]

Wow....unreal....hope your friend is all better. What a terrible experience. Thank you for sharing the experience. It is important that people know these things. Keep doing the videos and sharing the different experiences from one country to another.

[floridacargocat]

Healthcare system in the US. Please take into account that individual doctors (physicians) may not be that independant, but are part of of health care companies, and they are deathly afraid of being sued for any mistakes (actual and perceived). Therefore the easy way out is to refuse to provide a medical service to a patient in need.
Hospitals cannot refuse a patient. The recovery of their costs is a very challenging aspect, as there are people who simply cannot afford those charges; therefore charges include a certain percentage for those with health insurance to pay for those non-recoverable charges.
Second. Doctors are mostly deeply in debt as they must pay themselves for their medical studies. It is not unheard of that they have piled up debts of more than half a million for their studies, and someone has to pay back all these debts. Therefore, they (or their parents) have to take out loans for their education.
Another aspect is that these doctors need to have insurance against negligence and other misdemeanors. Rule of thumb is: One third is for insurance, one third is for potential law suits and the balance is for actual costs.
Third. The American Health care system is not designed to accommodate foreigners having no US health insurance for the very simple reason that their IT systems do not foresee such a case, and there is no way that support staff in the doctor's office can bypass their IT system.
Fourth. Personal experience. We were fresh in the USA. My son roller-bladed into my wife's ankle and we drove to the next available hospital (without calling an ambulance). Wait time all in all 6 hours. X-ray and six stitches and a bill of ~ USD 2500.
Fifth. Ask your German health insurance, which US health insurance and health care company does accept your German health insurance.
Sixth. In case of a car accident, do not forget to sign on for the best health insurance that is available.
Seventh. Quality of service by hospital staff. In general, they do their best and I have no complaints, but there are visible signs of labor shortage on the nurses and support staff (never admitted because this could lead to law suits of negligence by management for not foreseeing such situations).

I could go for a long time with more details. My advice is: stay back in Germany because the health care system is far better, which is an important aspect especially when you get older.

[sandyphillips]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. All I could think about was how much pain your friend must have been in that whole time!!! I hope she is on the mend now.

[uliwehner]

it is important to differentiate between healthcare, which is generally good in the US, and healthinsurance, which is generally not good. Back in the 70s and 80s big companies paid ALL healthinsurance cost for all their employees. Nowadays they pay something like 50 percent and they negotiate a better rate than you could as an individual. Still the out of pocket cost for the premiums is already higher than what you pay in germany. And even the "cadillac plans" do not cover everything. Best you can get is usually something like 90% with a low deductible, say a grand or so. Side-effect of the employer provided healthinsurance is that they may drop the plan you chose the next year, meaning you have to change insurance, which often means you have to switch your general practicioner / Family doctor. dental care is often a separate company, as is vision / eyedoctor / optometrist. In my 20+ years of working in the US i have had insurance with just about every national insurance company, Aetna, Blue Cross, United Healthcare, Cigna, etc. Oh, and yes, your chosen plan may only cover the state that you are

[karlhering]

wow- I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. The health insurance system is very complicated even for us natives. You may be able to get some advice and assistance from the Human Resorces dept ( HR) at your ( or your husbands) job. I tried to post a direct link in here but it would not work If you type " Feli from Germany/ US healthcare" into the YT search you may find her video interesting- she has almost the same story except she broke her wrist.

[gloofisearch]

Yep, I can relate to that. Lived in FL, CA and NV and not once things were easy. Now, I have no health issues, but when doing sports, things happen. However, my wife has a lot of health issues and it is just bad, I mean, very bad. Example: Living in NV and send for work to FL. Doctors in FL do not accept the NV health insurance as it is a Union Insurance for the hospitality staff in Nevada. And yes, you have a shit load of people working in these offices and each one just can do one thing. Even when you are in the hospital, and that happened to my daughter, she needed an Ultrasound and the person who did that, did only that and had no idea about anything else. Also the person who moved her there had no idea why she needs it.... That is why it is so expensive, you have such a big overhead with people that just know one thing. I just hope I never really need it!

[Whatisit]

Sorry for the trouble. That is definitely how you are treated if you don't have traditional insurance. I think they are worried you won't end up paying. The insurance system in the US is the problem. It is the most complicated system in the world. So much money is wasted on the bureaucracy. And you can never find out how much something will cost in advance 😕

[tnit]

I am new to this channel. Danke für das video.

[rolandk.]

The whole medical system (not the quality of work, just the basic system) is crap! But it makes tons of money. So it'll never change to better.

[chrismc]

On the human emotional aspect, US health care professionals are more caring and patient oriented people whereas in Germany, everyone seems to be in a rush, oftentimes, You don’t get advice or even more time when talking to a doctor unless you ask. In other words, the treatment is very cold and fast. Some are even racist if you’re a foreigner or you don’t speak German good enough. And these are common issues foreigners face in Germany. TBH, sometimes i feel like paying from my own pocket just to get a better treatment in terms of interaction with a doctor or nurse. But as you mentioned, it’s because Germany is very understaffed and the pressure of those working staff is way too high that can lead to work exhaustion and medical malpractice.

[pt]

We should not forget :
Our "socialised healthcare system" is the oldest (so first) in the world.
It is over 100 years old (going close to 150 years).

US conservatives should also know that even it has the word "socialised" in it, it was implemented in a time we (germany) had a constitutional monarchy here... meaning : we had a king of kings (a "Kaiser"... or emperor you would call him) and even he who could have veto it thought it was a good inovation... constitutional monarchy is konservativism at it's best.

By the way... "socialised healthcare system" is what englisch speakers call it. We call it "allgemeine Krankenversicherung " that can be translated as "healthcare for all".

Just a thought of a german you could use to confront conservatives in your country

[_K]

Massachusetts healthcare is different, anything that has significant problems, you're getting sent to Boston. Not even Worcester can deal with that. People come down from Maine and Vermont to Boston just to get surgeries.

[lissalack]

so sorry to hear about your friend's problems. Why did you call doctor's offices once you were back in Boston? You don't call a doctor for a broken leg, that is something for a hospital.you just go to an emergency room of a hospital. Very strange that the first hospital sent her home, that just sounds odd.

[doloresmey]

Wahnsinn, kann man dazu nur sagen. Und sorry, aber da macht es auch die typisch exorbitante Freundlichkeit nicht wett. Wobei ich die bei dem Telefonat, das du beschrieben hast, nicht wirklich finden konnte.
Das man so hin und her gejagt wird, gäbe es in DE sicher nicht. Auch wenn hier auch nicht alles perfekt ist.
Ich hatte vor einem halben Jahr eine größere OP und bin trotzdem, dass das deutsche Gesundheitssystem dringend Personal braucht, sehr freundlich und kompetent betreut worden.

[Why-D]

Oh my god, 5, -€ for a prescripted medication from the Pharmacy ... not so much. And child get this for free.
And if only one parents works, the whole family will be insured, without additional costs.

Social democracies are so bad!

No, you have to earn more than about 66.000€ a year, to choose if you want to have private health insurance.
46.000€ are only the limit to what you get Krankengeld / illness insurance, for up to 18 month, if you are still ill.

[kkemp]

The american "hell"care doesn't care for their patients only for the money they can earn. So much for the international human rights. Its a big shame

[arnodobler]

Wäre schön und lustig, wenn es Satire wäre, so ist es traurig! 🙋‍♂️Was ist eigentlich mit dem ärztlichen Eid in den USA?

[Mayagick]

After 12min in, sounds like heaven —not. I understand that your MD only focus on his expertise and "Hell No", do not want to have anything to do with the paperwork. So preemptive check your status incl. race, but mostly if you can afford treatment, register this and that.

You do Not want to break a leg in the 1st place. So it's just work, Work & WORK, no time for being sick. Those Europeans all socialists (even Canada and Japan proof that wrong). You need to travel to
e.g. Germany that we roll on 'Leave no-one behind', if you're sick, go see a doctor, regardless of your financial status, employed or not and nothing to do with nationality, race, gender or religion. Are some abusing the system, you bet. It is a civilatory achievement. Where it's not, I consider a cruel society. The overall ∅ life expectancy is lower in USA as in the civilized world. Don't get me started on Holidays, maternity leave (your hobby of giving birth) what's in it for the company?

[vitaliirusinov]

I'm from Germany too. I read on a website of a German international health insurance company that you are supposed to give them the name of your insurance PPO network and not the name of the German insurance company. For example, "I have an insurance that works through the UnitedHealthcare PPO network" or "through the CIGNA PPO network". Also in emergency situations. Some international health insurance companies give you a special PPO card for the US with all the details. Other German private health insurance companies get in touch with the doctor's office themselves and communicate to them all the numbers. It is important for the doctor to know the name of the PPO network because that's what they work with and that's what defines the negotiated amount of money that the doctor will get. Some non-US health insurances don't work through a PPO network, but many high-quality German international health insurances do. If there is no PPO network, there is often not a negotiated rate for the doctor so it could be easier to deny you an appointment or treat you as self-paid. I've never been to the US but I spent weeks reading about health insurance.
Hope it helps. Please let me know in the comments if the method (telling them the PPO network name) worked. If your insurance doesn't provide a PPO network, it may be time to change it.