Healthcare

We had one of our livestock in our farm that broke its leg.

The vet came out to to our farm, sedated it, put a cast on the leg. Also gave it pain meds.

The whole ordeal took 8 weeks. This involved 2-3 x rays in the office and resplinting the leg.

The total bill was slightly over $300.



Moral of the story, have a farm and make friends with a vet. They can do a majority of the things any hospital can do and a lot of the meds are the same if you do some research. ;)
 
6 years ago I broke leg in Portugal.

Without any insurance here, I paid in private nice hospital something like 300 Euro (like 350 USD) for everything - with X-ray and leg cast.

there were some rehabilitation after, it was something like 50-100 euro per visit

and those prices are similar in many countries in Europe...

if you have insurance things like this can be free in public hospitals (but you must wait more and quality can be lower)..
 
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I'll meant to post (will later today) my detailed experience last year with a bout of Shingles (my first)

Cut to the chase, went to ER due to pain, was there 3 hours, Bill was like $18,000 with no diagnosis.
"We don't know, go home and take Tylenol"
They couldn't diagnose Shingles? What, was there no rash?
 
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Nope. 3 days in and felt like Mike Tyson was punching me continuously in the kidney.

Next day, rash shows up, do a tele visit with my primary doc, he says Shingles, writes script for some anti viral

I didn’t pay the $18,000,
$11,000 of that was for a CT scan
 
6 years ago I broke leg in Portugal.

Without any insurance here, I paid in private nice hospital something like 300 Euro (like 350 USD) for everything - with X-ray and leg cast.

there were some rehabilitation after, it was something like 50-100 euro per visit

and those prices are similar in many countries in Europe...

if you have insurance things like this can be free in public hospitals (but you must wait more and quality can be lower)..

Without insurance it would have been similar here. If you’re an illegal alien, the price is 0$

With my employer insurance I had to pay $3500 of an $18,000 bill due to the initial annual deductible.
After that, I would pay 0$ for everything

Now retired over 65, on Traditional Medicare, I pay $250 p/mo out of my SS check, and $200 p/mo for private gap coverage, and ALL healthcare is covered 100% no matter what it is

What is your payroll tax rate that pays for socialized healthcare? Mine was 22% when I was working, now retired it’s 12%
 
They're now predicting social security and medicare will be out of money by 2033. Think about that one for a moment.

I went a couple weeks ago to get a measles shot. My mother couldn't remember if I had just one or a second one, so I said screw it and got one. It felt like molten fire being injected. lol

The only reason I got one is due to more measles cases showing up.
 
Without insurance it would have been similar here. If you’re an illegal alien, the price is 0$

With my employer insurance I had to pay $3500 of an $18,000 bill due to the initial annual deductible.
After that, I would pay 0$ for everything

Now retired over 65, on Traditional Medicare, I pay $250 p/mo out of my SS check, and $200 p/mo for private gap coverage, and ALL healthcare is covered 100% no matter what it is

What is your payroll tax rate that pays for socialized healthcare? Mine was 22% when I was working, now retired it’s 12%

In Europe, if an employee employed under an employment contract you don't paid directly insurance.

Your employer does this (has an obligation) - in addition to health insurance, they usually pay your retirement and disability insurance in the event of an accident or death. For example, in Poland, the health insurance contribution is 9%, the retirement contribution 19% and the disability/death insurance 8% extra of your payment payed to specific insurance government institution (all numbers generalized).

In most cases, the employee does not see these extra fees, these are the extra costs of hiring an employee under an employment contract by the employer. In many EU countries, can be other not typical forms of employment that have limited such safeguards (something like temp workers in the US).

if you public insured, then health services in public hospitals and clinics are free. There is no deductible, limits etc... But there are waiting lists (smaller/bigger depending of type / region / city) for many health services.

Also most prescribed drugs (except some novelties) are mostly covered - they are very cheap (few bucks) or in specific cases (older people etc) even free.

of course there are private clinics / hospitals.. and private extra insurances, which don't work very well (have many limits like yours in the US).

very often for busy people who have better income is much simpler / faster / cheaper go to private clinic and pay full price.. for big problems you have national insurance, the rest you do in private sector without extra insurances.
 
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No jabs for me

The “SS and Medicare” running out of money thing is deceiving.
At worst they will cut back by raising the qualifying age. Or cut benefits to current users by 10%
Already pushed SS to 68, and 70 is being talked about a lot. What they need to do is
1: Quit borrowing money out of it to pay for other crap.
2: Quit using it to pay for illegal aliens
3: Make politicians use the exact same system us plebs use. Would be fixed tomorrow.
 
There is some reasoning to hospital billing. A lot of hospitals use these insane charges to write off "charity" to zero out their bottom lines.
They're now predicting social security and medicare will be out of money by 2033. Think about that one for a moment.

I went a couple weeks ago to get a measles shot. My mother couldn't remember if I had just one or a second one, so I said screw it and got one. It felt like molten fire being injected. lol

The only reason I got one is due to more measles cases showing up.

To go completely off-topic, Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that relies on an ever-increasing number of people paying in, and that's not happening.

To bring it back... There is a blood test that you can do to see if you have immunity to measles. I just had it done as part of my biennial occupational health physical.
 
By the time SS/Medicare 'runs out of money', I will be dead, so I do not care. Besides, it will still payout. This is all a threat to raise taxes.
 
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And the BBB keeps us spending $2 Trillion per year more than we take in.

This is why when people say they don’t care about the debt, I know they don’t understand math.

But hey, I’m sure sending $40 Million p/wk to the Taliban (yes we really still do) and other such corruption has nothing to do with that.
 
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In Europe, if an employee employed under an employment contract you don't paid directly insurance.

Your employer does this (has an obligation) - in addition to health insurance, they usually pay your retirement and disability insurance in the event of an accident or death. For example, in Poland, the health insurance contribution is 9%, the retirement contribution 19% and the disability/death insurance 8% extra of your payment payed to specific insurance government institution (all numbers generalized).

In most cases, the employee does not see these extra fees, these are the extra costs of hiring an employee under an employment contract by the employer. In many EU countries, can be other not typical forms of employment that have limited such safeguards (something like temp workers in the US).

if you public insured, then health services in public hospitals and clinics are free. There is no deductible, limits etc... But there are waiting lists (smaller/bigger depending of type / region / city) for many health services.

Also most prescribed drugs (except some novelties) are mostly covered - they are very cheap (few bucks) or in specific cases (older people etc) even free.

of course there are private clinics / hospitals.. and private extra insurances, which don't work very well (have many limits like yours in the US).

very often for busy people who have better income is much simpler / faster / cheaper go to private clinic and pay full price.. for big problems you have national insurance, the rest you do in private sector without extra insurances.

I’m not clear on how much comes out of your paycheck? For health & retirement

What % of $1000 you make this week total is deducted to cover medical and retirement?

In the US it’s 7.65% that comes out of my paycheck
 
I’m not clear on how much comes out of your paycheck? For health & retirement

What % of $1000 you make this week total is deducted to cover medical and retirement?

In the US it’s 7.65% that comes out of my paycheck

It's not deducted (in the way like in the US). Simply employee is paying extra. The same is with taxes in EU.

Employees do not pay their taxes and insurance directly - employers do it on their behalf. And it is an additional cost of employment for employers.

Yes, in employment contract there are two salary values - net salary (what the employee gets to bank account) and gross salary (what is more of an employer's expense - so it includes most insurances and taxes - but not all).

It is different if you run your own business and fulfill contracts. Then you settle everything yourself - but some of the rules here may be different.

for 10000 PLN net salary usually there is 14185 PLN brutto salary.
 
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It's not deducted (in the way like in the US). Simply employee is paying extra. The same is with taxes in EU.

Employees do not pay their taxes and insurance directly - employers do it on their behalf. And it is an additional cost of employment for employers.

Yes, in employment contract there are two salary values - net salary (what the employee gets to bank account) and gross salary (what is more of an employer's expense - so it includes most insurances and taxes - but not all).

It is different if you run your own business and fulfill contracts. Then you settle everything yourself - but some of the rules here may be different.

for 10000 PLN net salary usually there is 14185 PLN brutto salary.

Oh employers in the US pay for the insurance as well, they simply have done a cost-sharing model with the employee.

Some employers cover more than others.

And then there is the plan level that has different pay responsibilities
 
They have been saying "SS will run out of money soon" as far back as I can remember (30+ years which is when I started following politics). It's all BS to scare Americans. If it is really that bad then stop providing EVERYTHING to illegals for free. Especially since Americans paid into SS their whole working lives! There is SO much waste in the gov
 
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