Best Health Care in the World?
My husband, daughter and I are spending this school year in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Many things about our lives here are vastly different, but one of the biggest differences is in the amount we spend on health insurance and health care.
As self-employed people, we are also necessarily self-insured. We pay nearly $10,000 a year for coverage in case of catastrophe, but essentially (since we are all relatively healthy) we are on a fee-for-service plan--we never reach our $5,000 deductible. So every year we live and work in the US, we pay more than $10,000, just in case.
Are we getting our money’s worth? Not according to the usual measures of public health, says an editorial in today's New York Times. "The United States ranks 45th in life expectancy, behind Bosnia and Jordan; near last, compared with other developed countries, in infant mortality; and in last place, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a health-care research group, among major industrialized countries in health-care quality, access and efficiency."
Fortunately, we haven't had to experience much of the health care system in Bolivia. I'm not suggesting I'd necessarily like to be treated here for a complex problem. But when Anna had a severe case of strep throat, a clinic doctor cured it with a shot of penicillin. Total cost:less than $10. My three visits to a dentist for teeth cleaning totalled $40. And we're not paying $10,000 this year, just in case.
As self-employed people, we are also necessarily self-insured. We pay nearly $10,000 a year for coverage in case of catastrophe, but essentially (since we are all relatively healthy) we are on a fee-for-service plan--we never reach our $5,000 deductible. So every year we live and work in the US, we pay more than $10,000, just in case.
Are we getting our money’s worth? Not according to the usual measures of public health, says an editorial in today's New York Times. "The United States ranks 45th in life expectancy, behind Bosnia and Jordan; near last, compared with other developed countries, in infant mortality; and in last place, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a health-care research group, among major industrialized countries in health-care quality, access and efficiency."
Fortunately, we haven't had to experience much of the health care system in Bolivia. I'm not suggesting I'd necessarily like to be treated here for a complex problem. But when Anna had a severe case of strep throat, a clinic doctor cured it with a shot of penicillin. Total cost:less than $10. My three visits to a dentist for teeth cleaning totalled $40. And we're not paying $10,000 this year, just in case.
posted by PO at
6:30 AM
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