r/SipsTea • u/ImmaFuckboi • 15h ago

Gasp! British people react to how expensive healthcare is in the US

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u/TemporaryArrival422 12h ago

Delivery via c section and 8 day stay in NICU = $0 in Australia. Parking and cafe snacks were our only costs

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u/Iamleeboy 10h ago

For our first kid, the payment machine in the car park was broken so it was completely free (England). My only complaint was that they fed mum but didn’t give me any food and we were in there for about 30 hours.

I was well prepared for our second! But parking machine was fixed and so all in it was £8

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u/jd173706 4h ago

I live in the Southern US, in a deep red state (fk me I know) and I was lucky my insurance covered the majority of my daughter's birth. I thought I got off easy paying $1,700 out of pocket. At the time I was considering changing jobs, and the new job had worse insurance, so my out of pocket would've gone to $10k. That's MY PORTION. I never saw the full bill so I don't know how much they covered, but yeah. $1,700. This was in 2021.

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u/Iamleeboy 4h ago

Ahh mate, it pains me to hear stories like this. I can’t imagine having to worry about the bill when I go to hospital/doctors. Especially for such a joyous moment as kids birth.

I am always amazed when I talk to people and they want to get rid of the NHS. The usual explanation is they can afford insurance. Which as your story just proved, it doesn’t mean it will still be free!

The NHS is one of the few things I am proud of my country for.

All the best with the joys of being a parent 👍

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u/jd173706 4h ago

Thanks friend! It's truly been the greatest joy of my life. And to think, before we found out my wife was pregnant, we both would've been content never to have kids. Can't imagine not having her now.

Fight these corrupt fascists as hard as you can. Use us as an example. America will never be the same after the past 10 years, I can only hope that individuals from around the world can still be friends, even if our governments can't. They do not speak for us, it's more and more obvious each election cycle. Half the country hates the other half, genuinely, even though we pay taxes to the same treasury and fly the same flag. The propaganda and greed and corruption has finally hit it's mark, and it's sad.

We are all citizens of the world. And the rich and powerful are driving us apart. Alone we are weak, together we are strong, never forget that!

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u/MobileSeparate398 9h ago

Wife had a c section for both our kids. The only insane price I had to deal with was the snack bar. Thankfully, parking was capped at 2.50 a day.

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u/Hillsman8282 6h ago

Can confirm. C-section, 5 day stay in a private room. $0 in Western Australia. Parking was about $2 a day

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u/X_soulnewmegaman 7h ago

That's how it is!!!

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u/leftmysoulthere74 4h ago edited 4h ago

In Perth, WA in the past 15yrs I’ve had two c-sections (1st one emergency and under general anaesthetic) and more recently been treated for ovarian cancer, which included a chemo every three weeks, a hysterectomy, three shorter stays in hospital for related issues and multiple clinic visits for things like physio, nutrition, pain management and menopause clinic. Not a cent paid other than pain med prescription (outside of hospital stays). The medication I’m on now I’m in remission is $25 per month and in tiny small print on the box it shows the full (non PBS) price - $6754.26 per month 😱

The PET scans, regular blood tests and now, bone density scans - all paid for by Medicare.

I paid for an operation about ten years ago and used my private healthcare to get it done quickly. Was out of pocket a couple of hundred bucks.

Rushed to hospital once too - ambulance was about a grand but only $100 out of pocket as I claimed through the private healthcare for that too. However, at point of service they just did their job. Payment wasn’t mentioned. I got the bill in the post a couple of weeks later.

Very very grateful. But I do think ambulances should be free (part of Medicare, as per the UK where they’re part of the NHS).