This is about Medical Insurance. It's a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, and there are significant differences between countries in terms of how it works. I'm making a comparison between how it's done in NZ and my understanding of how it's done in the USA - which may be flawed. I would especially invite any comments from American readers who can correct my understanding.
In New Zealand, as in many countries, we have what we call a "Public Health" system. This is what Americans would call "Socialized Medicine". Everyone is covered by the Public Health system, and it's Free (paid for by your Taxes).
The public system will come to your rescue if you injure yourself. An ambulance will come and take you to hospital A&E ("Accident & Emergency" = American "ER"). There, you will be treated according to the severity of your condition, along with the other people also there for treatment.
Very few people die from waiting too long for treatment, so for emergency care, the "Public System" is generally acceptable.
Its track record slips a little for chronic conditions however. If you have an ongoing condition - but not one that's immediately life-threatening, you will have to run the gauntlet of waiting lists, which in some cases can be months long, to see a specialist or get a surgery date. There is a theoretical risk that your condition may deteriorate to the point where it is Terminal while you are waiting - although in practice this is quite rare. It does mean that quality of life is impacted, sometimes severely, while waiting for surgery.
For non-ER type consultations and surgery there is an alternative: Private medicine. Put your hand in your pocket and you can see a specialist immediately, and have your surgery next week, provided you can afford it.
This is where Medical Insurance in NZ comes in - you can buy "SurgicalCare" or similarly-structured insurance, which will
not cover trips to the optometrist, dentist or regular Doctor visits, but if you unexpectedly need to fork out thousands at short notice to have a cancerous organ removed, it means no waiting.
I have such a policy for my family: two adults and one child, for which I pay around $140 per month. (that is about $US 90)
This policy will also cover any scans, X-rays, sonograms or other tests ordered by the specialist.
Contrast this to the American way of doing it. For a start, Medical insurance there is
horrendously expensive and would come as a very rude shock to anyone migrating there. My understanding is that for similar cover to that mentioned, for a family of two adults and a child, it would cost something in the order of
$1500 per month.Also there is no "socialized medicine" in the USA, which means (in practice) that unless you have Medical Insurance, you are somewhat screwed. I hear tales of people being patched up after accidents and then being left with
immense debt.A lot of corporations in America offer medical insurance as one of the benefits. To the point where it's a very strong consideration in choosing a job. Americans would turn down a great job offer in favour of a lesser one if it had "great Medical" [insurance benefits].
The real kicker in this debate is that of switching insurance companies: If you develop some medical condition during your life, then later on move to another employer, you will inevitably end up switching medical insurers. Most medical insurance policies will exclude pre-existing conditions, which means that
by switching employers, you are essentially
degrading your medical cover.It's easy to see how you could go through your life and career, carrying insurance policies which would become progressively more limited and worthless to you.
It would be
very interesting to see some statistics on the number of deaths in the USA due to chronic medical conditions, for which treatment was refused or delayed due to the subject having been essentially forced to switch insurers throughout their career.
Any Americans out there care to correct my understanding??