British DOCTORS react to US MEDICAL BILLS 

That is obscene!

Yep my ambulance bill was $1700.

😱 $36,000?!

@@ScanningTheMind I know, right!?! Maybe they thought I was THIS guy. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CIltL_Qhro8.html

My god

Exactly! If the paramedics were paid handsomely the cost might be more understandable

It's pure Greed, plain and simple.

Most paramedics in the US are not employed by the hospital. They are separate private company.

Most US paramedics don’t get health insurance.

😳

Yeah our bad 🤷🏽‍♂️

That’s a very difficult situation to be in

That’s crazy!

Ouch!

It’s brutal because if you lose your job, you lose your insurance and you’re screwed.

Just buy insurance if you live in the US. Let the insurance pay it.

Shew!

That’ll be $1000 please

Interesting. Would you say people are generally happy with healthcare in Australia? Private provision here is at a minimum however, anything remotely high risk tends not to be available privately.

So we live in regional New South Wales, approximately 8 hours north of Sydney and so care recieved here is different in terms of availability; however in general most people here seem happy with the level of care they get, there are those who complajn but when you look at the USA as a prime example we, like you guys have nothing to complain about. Private insurance is something that less than half the population have, this can be for various reasons but are mainly financial as the cost of this goes up each year, usually in line with the consumer price index. Like the UK our private system compliments the public one in each state; although for anything major or complex you will always be treated within the state system where the only benefit of private insurance is the ability to get a private room where available and choice of doctor/specialist; private insurance here also covers you for things like breastfeeding reconstruction and pregnancy, blood transfusions, diabetes related items and many more.....this however is totally dependent on your level of hospital coverage that you hold along with any waiting periods that you have served prior to any procedure being performed. Regarding ambulances specifically, in NSW they are a user pays service, unless you hold a pension card, get unemployed benefits or hold a veteran affairs card so for this reason many people hold separate ambulance coverage provided by a health insurer and its something you can buy for about $120 per year per family which saves potentially thousands if you are transported to hospital via ambulance, fees do vary too depending on distance travelled, urgency of care and include a call out fee of about $350; I will say though that if something happens in NSW but you live elsewhere, as did to my father in law the bill gets sent to your address and you take that to your ambulance station (Queensland) and the amount is paid to NSW through your electricity bill levy which all QLD households pay as an emergency services levy of about 3 percent each quarter.

Thanks!

Do you mean you just don’t go to the doctor because you know it’ll cost a lot?

@@ScanningTheMind yea or call ambulances. It was just funny to me, to hear you laugh and be like “bruv I just wouldn’t call the ambulance”… and yea we don’t lol I’ve taken an uber to the ER way too many times

@@PerksJ haha that’s mad! I suppose the flip side is sometimes people here might inappropriately call ambulances- but it’s sad that if someone genuinely needs an ambulance they don’t call it because of fear of cost

@@ScanningTheMind well it gets abused here too but by people who are wealthy enough for it not to matter. I get healthcare thru my employer and have a pretty good plan so an ambulance ride for me would be about $800. ER admission is $400, then everything, even a bandaid/ibuprofin gets added to the bill from there. For me, a teacher who makes the average american salary, that is pretty much all my savings, but for someone else that may be nothing at all. The worst part is you will never know how much your bill is until you receive it. And even if you are taken to a hospital that is “covered” (only meaning that your insurance has an agreement with them so you will receive treatments for the price it says in your insurance benefits brochure) a certain doctor in that hospital might nit be, so depending whose shift it is could cost you hundreds or hundreds of thousands of dollars if that doctor is “out of network”.

@@ScanningTheMind oh and those numbers are just the co-pay, my premium is about $115 per month and I am SUPER lucky!

I know, we couldn’t believe some of the prices!

Hospital's in the US make millions every year.

Exactly, I'm not sure why the one felt the need to call the man an idiot for thinking ambulances were free. Not everyone has any idea or interest about health costs in the US, it doesn't make him an idiot.

Oh but we do want to know! How much are we talking for a CT scan?

@@ScanningTheMind if I remember rightly it's $3k+? That was within a bill presented to a person who had had a bad accident and had CT scans, x-rays, ultrasounds etc. But the CT scans and in fact the radiology dept charge humongous amounts! The CT scans are THE most expensive scan. The person was in ICU for a couple weeks?/days? But in hospital for a couple /3 weeks and at the end his bill was $376k. It's a reaction video by another couple of doctors - reading 4 medical bills (including the obstetric one), and reacting. The final bill, although we had no details of treatment etc, was $2m+. Imagine having to be in hospital and getting a $2m bill. Unbelievable.

@@susangamble6038 interesting. I had an MRI done privately few years ago (in the UK) which was a couple 100 £s. Seems crazy that a CT can run into the thousands

@@ScanningTheMind even the ultrasounds can run $1k and over. This is all, of course, charging for those without insurance. Apparently, people will take their own cars to hospital rather than an ambulance because of the cost. Broken arm, broken leg, concussion, bleeding to death .... it's crazy! So grateful for the NHS. I worked as a medical secretary to 5 paediatric urologists for 20 years (retired early in 2019). So I know the value of our health service. Sadly, because I worked there I also know all of the problems it faces.

That’s mad!, I had an USS privately in UK (without insurance obviously) and that was £350! Haha I bet you could tell a lot of stories having been a Consultants secretary, you guys always know all the juicy gossip 🤣

Thanks! Will sift through the rest of our elevator music collection 🤣

@@ScanningTheMind Lord! If you have an elevator music Spotify list, considered yourself unfollowed. Hell, you should have your license revoked! ha

@@ScanningTheMind Universal healthcare first existed in the Soviet Union in 1918. In 1948, Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) stipulates that health is a human right that cannot be capitalized or given a price tag. And after 100 years, healthcare is in 194 countries out of 195 countries in the world, including North Korea. except the USA which still puts a price tag on health. for the reason that this is Universal healthcare is a crime of communism ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2rQ3h04UFP0.html

Sad state of affairs

Kinda is kidnapping isn’t it 🤷🏽‍♂️😂

@@ScanningTheMind it really is!i can't believe i never thought about that before my cousin's trying to get her plans together over here too-and she's considering giving birth outside the hospital

Crazy!

she had what ??

What is trust?

Too many paparazzi outside the old one, so had to move to a secret premises

That’s a lot of money. Congratulations and hope everything goes smoothly for you guys.

They’ll find any excuse to justify the cost 😂

We all know the NHS is not "free" but free at point of service. Those people interviewed are also paying their taxes into the system, so no need for the Doctors to be so condescending just because they are the general public.

@@sylviasworld9397 We’re not being condescending- I don’t blame them for not knowing how much things cost. Why would they when we never speak about the true cost of a visit to a hospital ? There needs to be a greater awareness of how much healthcare actually costs, otherwise things are often taken for granted.

@@ScanningTheMindSorry but I found it a little condescending or maybe belittling at points assuming that members of the public say free they literally mean free, when obviously there is a cost which is spread across all taxpayers. We know this. Its not my job to know the actual pound for pound cost tbh, but to pay the taxes that funds it.

@@sylviasworld9397 they are being asked to guess how much it costs in the USA, where most things aren’t tax payer funded.

🤣

That’s fine if everyone gets an acceptable service, which unfortunately I would say we are not in the U.K

Yeah our bad 🤷🏽‍♂️

Yeah we’ve heard this before too. Why though?! 🤦🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️

Hopefully not many…

Canadian doc here. I used to work in ER, and I can't imagine having a patient arrest, not being able to get them back, and handing their family a dead body and a bill for thousands of dollars. That goes against everything I believe about medical practice. I think it is unspeakably cruel, and it violates every ethical principle I've ever held. I'd never be able to be an American doctor.

They are charging you for the 10 seconds it took the nurse or the doctor to hand you the baby. they are billing it as a service.

In the US the first rule is make money.

Yeah, our bad on that one.

Insurance companies are having a laugh

@@ScanningTheMind Indeed, all the way to the bank.

Thanks for sharing!

That sounds like a nightmare to navigate

Might be a stupid question- does everyone not ask for an itemised bill?

@@ScanningTheMind No. The vast majority of Americans are terrible at finances. Most don't have a budget, don't know how much is in their account(s) at any given time, and pays whatever they're told to pay. As an American, I've noticed a decline in basic adult skills by Americans over the years, it's quite fascinating.

@@lagon7830 that’s a shame

@@ScanningTheMind It depends on the why. My theory is 3 major things have caused the decline in basic adult skills. Laziness, some people just don't want to put the 10 minutes a week into their basic finances, or 15 minutes a week into their investment portfolios. Parenting, parents who either relied on technology to raise their children, or who are terrible with finances, are almost guaranteed to teach their children poor financial habits. Mental illness, in the advanced world, including the US, the rate has been steadily increasing. Regardless of the cause, though I theorize the increasingly unnatural lifestyle prevents us from acknowledging and fulfilling basic biological needs, can cause missing skills or the inability to complete tasks requiring certain skills. It's interesting, but its not possible at this time to truly identify the primary causes, and to determine a solution for them. You'd need alot of data, much of which Americans wouldn't volunteer, to suggest a theory based on more than speculation.

I did not mean your channel, I meant the one that made the original video.

Like you just said, if your income is low enough to qualify for government assistance. Most don’t but also aren’t so wealthy that 3k is no big deal. One of the most popular tv shows was based on a teacher who cooked meth to pay for his cancer treatments lol. Personally I wouldn’t go that route, I’d probably just not get treatment and die. Do you work for the insurance or pharmaceutical company or something lol, why would anyone else defend this?

and i absolutely hate when ppl come up with any justification that the us health care ''it isn't that bad''

But we don’t think patients should pay individually for their treatments?

The amount we pay in taxes is far far less than what we'd have to pay out of pocket for health care. And we aren't paying for "lazy people", we're paying so the system will be there when we need it.

@@wfcoaker1398 I see so you also think we should pay extra to be more like U.S so what you call lazy people and most of us call unfortunate people who do not have jobs do not get treated for free.

@@kimberlytrading2344 Quite the contrary. The "lazy people" comment was sarcastic. That's a common thing to hear American opponents of humane health care say. It's like they think A) their country is made up of lazy people who sponge off everyone else and B) what little they save in taxes will actually pay for their health care. I call it "humane" in contrast with the American system to avoid anything with "social" in it to avoid the hysteria they get into over "socialism". It totally misses the point. I'm a retired doctor. I paid my taxes all my life and never begrudged a cent. I was doing my bit. I'm also a Newfoundlander and the Canadian social contract is important. Canadians help each other out. It's why we joined Canada in 1949. If Canada's social services network, primitive though it was back then, was worth my parents' generation giving up their country for, it's damn well worth defending now.

@@wfcoaker1398 Dear Sir Thank you for your acceptable explanation I thank you for your service to Canadian health service and long may it survive I must admit to loath the US health system and are very much for social health in Canada and the UK. although originally British i now live in a country that mainly uses the US system Having already spent 5000 pounds on a balloon and stent which took 15 mins and i was awake, am aware that should i need another i will be left to die

With 10s of millions in poverty and at least 10s of millions more not doing much better than that, either scenario could easily become a death sentence unless the system you're describing changes.

@@johnburnscrystaljack totally agree both systems are faulty and both need to change but for non emergency situations you can take yourself to a hospital for less than 2500 dollars but you can't be admitted till the hospital staff say you can and in emergency situations time is more of a killer than the bill you receive after treatment.

@@alanthomas8748 A lot of people don't even seek treatment, for emergency situations or ongoing long term issues that eventually become serious, because of the cost. Medical costs in general across the board are out of control in the US, an alternate system must work since the US is the only major country left in the world where profit is more important than the healthcare itself

@@johnburnscrystaljack not really true though is it . the nhs has a history just as much as anywhere else of refusing life saving treatment over financial constraints. and yes the bills are extortionate in the US but as far as i know they still don't refuse you emergency medical care if you got shot they would save your life then bill you . but again you can die from a heart attack in ten minutes you can not die in 10 minutes from debt .

@@alanthomas8748 I don't think the NHS eventually seeing reduced capacity due to being underfunded for years thanks to a conservative government that's more interested in profit than health is the defense of the American system you appear to think it is