NHS - how much you pay for your insurance ?

[Rico]

For those - mostly from Europe -  where many people belongs to NHS.
Of course information from people outside the Europie is certainly welcome

How much you pay totally (I mean the sum of what pay you and your employer)
in % of salary

in Poland about 35% of salary (or even more - I gave minimal possible value)
The sum of what pay employer for my NHS + what pay me - i know it's ridiculous
and it's mandatory. We can't choose insurance policy

nice ?  add income tax to this

PS in Poland NHS covers also social security (retirement)

[Gregor Samsa]

You don't pay directly for a health insurance in most countries. The NHS is usually funded through general taxation and it's the government that sets the budget for it.

[Rico]

of course it's done through taxation

as I said in Poland it's about at least 35%
Today we have parliament election and I wonder how it is in another countries
I voted for the ones who want to change the system. From social-democracy (in our environment it's just post-communism) to free market - where you pay minimal taxes for military, police etc and you get almost full amount of salary and you decide which insurance policy you want, and how to save your money for old age. Surprisingly, the have very low chances. I do not know why people prefer so ineffective (beaurocracy, corruption) socials

I believe we have almost the biggest taxes over the world

by adding income tax and some small others in Poland everyone pay  about 55% of salary  (sum of the all taxes)

you don't know how much you pay in your country ?

[Gregor Samsa]

You're muddling the issue that is being discussed by bringing the government's overall expenditure into the picture. A national health care system doesn't have to be ineffective. In fact, the lack of one is often cited as one of the main reasons why the US has the highest healthcare costs per capita in the whole world despite that it hasn't lead to a higher quality of healthcare compared to countries that are spending less:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddhixon/2012/03/01/why-are-u-s-health-care-costs-so-high/

The U.S. spent about $7,000 per capita in 2008 on health care. Peer countries, like Japan and the U.K., spend about half that amount and achieve equally good results, as measured, for example, by life expectancy at birth.

What are you going to do about all the people that can't afford healthcare unless it's provided by the state? Many of those will still receive healthcare and those costs will be passed on to everyone else:
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States#Shared_costs_of_the_uninsured
2) http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/who-bears-the-cost-of-the-uninsured-nonprofit-hospitals
3) http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150623/NEWS/150629964

[Rico]

The system is f... up.  People (voters) too . Everywhere.

They vote for parties which give super privileges to banks. The banks damage whole system by loan sharking

etc , etc.  Europe is gonna die.  USA can defend itself only because of military offensives (including weapon trade) and they can print money...

PS it doesn't matter how much insurance costs in specific country. The ratio salary : costs  matter.  I do not think Americans pay 35% of their salaries for insurance. In Canada it's about 5%  just for health insurance

[sherrifrob]

In UK your national insurance contributions are less than 5%. The rest is subsidised by the govt. There are no co-pays, deductibles or co-insurances on medical. The philosophy is that it should be free at the point of delivery. Dental has some co-pays.

Anyone from within the EU can seek treatment in another EU country. It used to be known as the E111 card but the name has changed to something else now I think EHIC. It's usually on an emergency basis like falling ill abroad but if you do become resident & register you can use another EU countries system like a local would.

Across the EU you can also be privately insured, most countries are a mix of public & private systems in EU.

The figure is a bit old but the average American pays 17% of their total income towards medical costs, this means premiums plus deductibles etc plus costs not covered by private insurance.

Since Obamacare the amount of uninsured americans has dropped .5% per annum so the above figure may well have changed, the more insured the less the premiums are. It's 10.7% as of a NYT article I saw yesterday, down from 18.2% uninsured in 2010. That is the non-elderly population though, elderly being eligible for medi-care anyway.

[sherrifrob]

Also in regard to costs of care in the US vs EU, the US is the most expensive country for treatment by a factor of 5, the next most expensive being Hong Kong.

Obviously there are other factors like efficiency & effectiveness to take into account. It should be noted though that when private insurers don't pay the cost is eventually picked up by the tax payers. The state of California is suing a private insurer for $1Billion for unpaid claims which were then passed onto medicaid. The per capita health care spend in US is on average $10K which does not include any amounts paid from taxes by the state for claims not paid by insurers.

Public systems are by no means perfect but at least you won't have to worry about bankrupting yourself due to illness or injury. There's a few myths, under the public system in the UK you can chose your own doctor, there aren't any 'death panels' & hospitals aren't rat infested. Also survival rates are comparable to the US & you always have the option of taking out private health care if you don't want to use the NHS. I have both & there was literally no difference at all with my jaw surgery. My doctor/orthodontist was even the same.

They are both bureaucratic messes though, that is universal.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthcare-ranked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/

[Rico]

i don't believe, that Americans pay about 35% of their salaries  for health insurance (including old age pension). I mean Poland is the most corrupted country in this field.
and I cant use my public insurance in time. For cancer treatment you have to wait 2-3 months here    For heart examinations 2 years ... can you believe?
Only you can do, is to pay (waste) 35% of your salary and additionally for particular procedures in private clinic (in private ones in Poland are not covered by NHS).
In previous month I paid 60% of my salary to have proper treatment (just x-rays and some prescribed drugs - I did not have time because of my planned surgery) and i can tell you my salary is much more than 1000$ . Keep in mind Big-Mac menu (set) in Poland costs about 4$.  and 0.5L Coke half of a dollar

US may pay even 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000$

it says nothing

the most important is how much you pay and how much you earn

this is why i asked only about %

[sherrifrob]

Thats the thing about NHS, you have to pay into it so you can't chose to just spend your money on private health care instead. I only have private as it was through my work, I doubt I would have paid for it myself. Now that I've worked in insurance I can see how much it all costs.

My sister lives in Germany & she doesn't have the same waits as here in UK. I'm Irish, when I lived there, it was a long wait on the NHS too. Public is cheaper but the wait is unpredictable. 

[Rico]

Germany has very good mixed (private / public) health care

BTW I can't drop NHS.. I would like to do...but I can't  - illegal
So I pay a lot of money for NHS, and only half of medical procedures I can get in proper time..often I have to act faster and pay myself in private clinic....wasted money. I pay for nothing.


socialism :/