On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:00:39 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

If you're fortunate to have good insurance, count yourself lucky. I had to
pay my own way for myself and for my son last year, at a rate of $12,500/yr.
That's for a good, but not excellent level of insurance. A lot of people
can't afford it. That's part of the reason my rates were so high. And for
those who don't have insurance, their crisis care costs you and me a hell of
a lot more than it would if we had universal care.

That amount is about 60% of my gross income, there is no way I
could afford that.

When I was working I had full hospital cover but when I retired in
'95 the cost would have been about 33% of my pension so I had to
discontinue most of it. I did keep what is called in Oz "
ancillaries benefits " - dental, ambulance transport ( minimum
callout $150 or so ), optical and a few other things, currently about
5% of gross income. I have to pay for doctor visits and get a
portion of the fee back from Medicare, otherwise I am a "public
patient" for hospital treatment.
A few years ago I had internal bleeding, went to Doc - immediate
referral to hospital, operation next day. Private room for recovery
for several days, then about 5 days in a 4 bed public ward until I was
kicked out. A few appointments for checkups and I have been fine
since. No cost to me, but I had been paying tax all my life for it
( and still am, but not much because of my low income ).
I have also had the lenses in my eyes replaced with plastic as I
was unsuitable for laser treatment. Consultations with the surgeon
were very expensive but I received about 60% refund from my ancillary
cover. Operations cost was no charge to me as an age pensioner. I
had to wait about 2 months for a time slot and was about 6th on the
list for that day. Now have perfect distance vision but have to wear
different strength glasses for reading, welding, woodwork, computer
screen, depending on distance. Anything under 2 metres needs glasses
to see clearly, without them objects are slighly blurred.

There is, in Western Oz, a waiting list for elective surgery, ie
non urgent, of about 6 months for public patients whereas people with
full hospital cover have a minimal wait.

Alan