An American Gets Health Care Abroad

[jossgoyanko]

This is the equivalent of an abused partner being surprised when their new partner treats them with respect and dignity. What should be the bare minimum feels like a trap.

[smashley]

When I was solo traveling in Japan, I had a little scare with my pacemaker. I am 100% pacemaker dependent so I was freaking out. They called me an ambulance…which only made me freak out even more, and then I was seen by the nurses, a cardiologist, had a full pacemaker work up and a chest X-ray.
I asked them how much it would cost and was terrified Id have to cut my trip short. They looked sad as they handed me the bill and said “this is the best we can do since you don’t have the national insurance.”
The total: $115
My jaw dropped.
やすい! “It’s cheap!” I said with my limited Japanese.
At that, they all looked so sad for me that $115 was a relief.

Side note, I was alone and scared with a language barrier and those doctors and nurses were so kind to me. They hugged me and told me everything would be okay and walked me to the bus stop to make sure I was safe. A+!

[jamesbenedict]

I'm a neurologist and my wife is a pediatric clinical geneticist. Whenever we get a child diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder we throw in a question if the parents are willing to live in Europe or Canada. Most of the children's care here in the US are cut short due to finance and sadly their lifespan too.

[spritbong]

“No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means.”
--- Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health (1945-51)

[richmahogany]

In the USA:
Doc: "Everything checks out, you're just fine."
Patient: "Aw crap what a waste of money."

[oOcattyOo]

I love when Americans try to "gotcha" with DO YOU KNOW ITS NOT FREE YOU PAY FOR IT WITH TAXES? Yes, we're aware, thank you, that's how functioning societies work.

[davidserlin]

I once got sick in London and needed to see a doctor on a Sunday but I was too sick to leave my hotel room. The hotel said “we can call someone for you, but it will be VERY expensive.” I said, that’s fine, I really need to be seen immediately. A GP showed up with a black bag full of medicine and basic equipment. He examined me, diagnosed me, gave me medicine straight out of his bag. He charged me $100 including prescription. When I thanked the hotel staff and said that this was not expensive by US standards, they were shocked. “You don’t consider $100 for a house call expensive?” I shook my head.

[dianagibbs]

I am an American living in Canada. It's real! My partner got three exams by three doctors, an ocular ultrasound, and an MRI all in one day, and I paid $5 for a water and a croissant at the Tim Horton's in the hospital. It was amazing. When I got bit by a patient (I'm a vet), I went to the urgent care and afterwards we hovered by the front desk and they said 'no, you're good, go.' I felt like running out, jumping in the vehicle, and yelling 'start the car!' like we'd just robbed a bank. It's very confusing.

[vintagemoss]

This is so real to me. My husband is American and we live in Canada. When he was diagnosed with Cancer he was so afraid of how much everything would cost. I tried reassuring him that he wouldn’t get a bill and that he just needed to concentrate on getting better. Which he did. He couldn’t believe the level of care he received.

[SharkyShocker]

A big thing that I don't think people account for is pre-emptive health care. Free Healthcare sure sounds like a lot of tax money, that is true. But keep in mind that because it becomes free a lot of health expenses in the industry that would have used your taxes anyways become far cheaper. That individual who couldn't pay the tens of thousands of dollars for when they had their heart attack?
Well, if they had free healthcare and they went in earlier, they could've found out they had high blood pressure and gotten a prescription for $15 a month.

A lot of people can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that paying for a janitor is cheaper for your business than what would happen without one.

[tev]

I know I'm late to the comments (very late) on this video but I spoke to a nurse in Canada who treated an American with a broken arm. He was so scared it was going to cost him a bunch of money when she told him he wasn't getting charged for it he broke down crying.

My wife lost her father because he had no healthcare. He was working on his roof and fell off a ladder onto his head. His neighbor saw this and called an ambulance to come check him out. He declined an ambulance ride to the hospital even though they told him it would be incredibly dangerous for him not to be checked out and he could have internal head or neck trauma. He declined because he had no insurance and couldn't afford it. He went inside to lay in his bed. Died that night, and decomposed in his bed for a month before someone found him. If we had universal healthcare in this country my wife might still have a father. I don't understand how it's so radical or socialist of an idea to have some sort of base foundation for your society to care for its citizens and give them a leg up. We've been brainwashed by politicians who get some of the best insurance in the world funded by taxpayer dollars who convince a large portion of the population that private insurance is the way to go. We have failed our citizens.

[metaparcel]

As an American who got an Asthma attack in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and got free treatment by a lovely Muslim doctor, she was just absolutely amazing, that gave me treatment within 20 mins of me arriving to the hospital. Years later I still remember how I didn't pay for anything.

[petrine]

I live in Denmark. We have universal healthcare so when I was diagnosed with breastcancer ten years ago, I had the surgery done a week after the biopsy followed by 4 months of chemo, 3 months of radiation therapy and anti-hormone treatment ever since. I just finished my treatment. So I’ve been cared for with medications, check-ups, mammograms and ultrasounds every year for ten years and never have had to worry about costs. When people say ‘oh, you pay so much in taxes to the state in Denmark’, my answer is ‘ WE are the state. Taxes is the way we take care of each other. It is something I share with others. I’m not being robbed by a faceless ‘state’. ‘ ❤

[twofargne]

This is EXACTLY what happened to me when I had an emergency surgery in France. After an ambulance ride, the tests, the surgery, and 3 days in the hospital I was released. When I went to the check-out desk I asked for my bill. The lady behind the counter starts laughing and said "You must be the American. There is no bill, but here is a list of the medications you need to take for the next 2 weeks." The entire ordeal including post-op meds cost me €65. The question is why does one of the richest countries in the world (the US) treat its citizens like trash?

[tparadox]

Different countries do it differently and all, but from what I've heard, if you're not a citizen or a resident, you'll probably get "I'm so sorry, this is really embarrassing, but I am going to have to charge you today. That will be $20."

[David_Vitek]

It seems like an airplane ticket and a passport would be much cheaper and safer options than healthcare in the US.

[millersam]

Yup. I had to go to the hospital in New Zealand. I was freaking out the entire time. They thankfully had an American doctor working there. I think I scared the ER staff. They brought the American doc in, who treated me and explained that they couldn't bill me bc they didn't have a billing department! I was extremely confused. I'm pretty sure no one in that hospital wanted to visit the USA after that. I heard the American doctor explaining to the coworkers that my reaction was very normal for Americans who went to the ER, and that's one of the reasons he left. New Zealand hospital staff were extremely nice

[jimdawdy]

LOL...this happened to me. My wife found out she was pregnant while we were in London, and I asked about an OB visit at the hotel. They sent me to a local clinic where we filled out a small slip of paper (name, DOB, address). Not filling out a pile of forms was the first weird thing. Because she was a foreigner, I had to pay 20GBP. Doctor ran a test and sent us for an ultrasound. I asked how much it would be and he said "nothing". I said, "Well, I had to pay 20 pounds..." and he said, "No, that's wrong. Her home country [not USA] has a reciprocal agreement for health care." He went and got me back my 20GBP. We went and got the ultrasound, everything fine. I said, "Is that it? Do I have to pay anything?" Just like the video. I told her "Let's get out of here before they change their minds and we have to pay $1000!"

[goodwolf]

Lived in UK for several years. I pay more in taxes now than I did in the UK and my healthcare was included. I had twins there and no bills. The broken healthcare system is one of the biggest problems facing Americans today.

[karenward]

As a former nurse who trained in the UK, the entire US health insurance system is a nightmare to navigate.