Births in Both Countries: My experience with hating, then loving, the NHS.

As everyone knows, I've had more medical treatment than the bionic man I credit the NHS with saving my life at least twice, once with my brain tumour and again with my gastric bypass surgery and that's without the prescriptions I have taken every day since the age of four. Then throw in my diabetic eye check, my foot check, the numerous times I've fallen off my bike or cracked a rib, the carpal tunnel syndrome surgery, the literally hundreds of CT/MRI scans I've had, the therapist I saw at school and later at uni, having my eggs frozen before radiation therapy and I am the $1,000,000 woman.

I know that even a small co-pay would have bankrupted me, that many of those things would not have been covered by insurance (I had gamma knife and experimental surgery when I was ill) that many of those things would have been a fight to get, that I may not be here now.
When you're properly sick, you're terrified, no matter how positive you are, you're just so scared and the idea that you'd have the capacity to concentrate on anything else but getting better is astounding, that me being sick could put financial strain on my family is inconceivable, that my family would be receiving bills after my death is horrifying. 

The NHS isn't always brilliant, it is very rarely pretty,sometimes you have to fight for the care you think you deserve, you have to be your own advocate, but it's always there when you need it and the piece of mind it offers you is worth a $1,000,000 and all the cable channels/fancy linens/edible food in the world.

Fortunately my experiences with having babies in the US didn't involve receiving lots of big bills, even though there were complications with miscarriages and my daughter's illness after birth.  I was with two different HMO's and while their approaches were slightly different, both processes seemed reasonably straightforward.  My biggest gripe was that my employer determined what type of insurance I had.

I think part of what gets to me about the US healthcare system (I haven't ever had to use it, so this is just my outsider's opinion), is that even if you won't have to pay much out-of pocket, you still have to worry about who will be picking up the costs afterwards (i.e. insurance will cover X amount of it, another scheme may cover Y amount and I will have to pay Z amount out of pocket).

It just seems like a lot of unnecessary hassle to have to deal with, especially when you've just been ill (or had a baby)! It's quite nice to know that if you are admitted to hospital in the UK, the costs will have already been taken care of through taxes/NI contributions so you can just concentrate on getting better and not have to worry about the money side of things as well.

I am in the US (for now, while getting my BSN) and I have given birth twice, been hospitalized a few other times for infections, etc. and most recently had gastric bypass surgery (14 Dec 2010).  Fortunately for me, all the times I have been inpatient, I had Medicaid (which is the closest you'll get in the US to NHS aside from Medicare and Tricare), which is for low income persons.  My first birth was a fetal demise (my daughter passed away during my 25th week of pregnancy) and I had a horrific experience.  My midwives (I was with a Certified Birth Center) had no hospital access but gave me constant support by phone during my 2 day labor.  While I was in the hospital, my Medicaid case worker called me and was harassing me while I was in LABOR with a deceased child.  Why the harassment?  She was missing my last pay stub from the child development center I worked at.  She threatened to cut off my Medicaid immediately if I didn't get it to her by 1 April (and I gave birth on 27 Mar).  With the birth of my twins in 2006, I had a wonderful experience, albeit, I spent a lot of time in and out of labor and delivery due to irritable uterus.  I felt fortunate to have a wonderful OB who fought to let me try labor but Kiana (twin A) was in a dangerous breech position.  I ended up with a partially open incision and an e coli infection (and was sectioned by another doctor in the practice since my doc had been called away out of town on family emergency).  I was kept inpatient for 5 days, the babies weren't brought to me for regular feedings and the post-partum nurse (less than 16 hours post-partum) was nasty with me when I couldn't fit into the abdominal binder, telling me that I needed to lose some weight (nevermind that I had just birthed 13 pounds of baby and was under 200 pounds for the first time in my adult life).  I got a bill for the hospital stay b/c the billing department was lame and it was nearly $25,000 USD!!!!  I called my high risk case manager who had it fixed and I paid nothing, but that's NOT the last thing one needs to see when you've just given birth to twins as a single mom.  I was still living with my ex partner b/c I was unable to work quite yet and was being emotionally and financially abused.  There is NO Maternity Allowance or short term disability available state-wide in Texas and I had missed the filing deadline by 2 weeks for California state disability (where I lived, worked and paid into the system until late 2004 when we moved to Texas). 

When I was employed at a local clinic in Texas (for over 3 years), I had private insurance and required regular visits with several specialists at a co-pay of $25 PER visit.  Prescriptions were $15 for a 30 day supply of generic drugs and $70 for a 30 day supply of name brands.  Plus the testing supplies, pen needles and such required for diabetes management!  All of this while trying to make rent, utilities, food, gas, auto insurance, paying for child care for two infants, and of course DIAPERS!  I only made $11-12.61 per hour at 35-40 hours per week!!  So many of my health care needs went uncared for out of necessity. 

After losing my job (kids were getting too sick, too often and I had no family in the area) and ending up in a women's shelter, I gave up and moved to Colorado where my father lives.  Got Colorado Medicaid, moved into a place with my partner and had gastric bypass surgery....which was covered by Medicaid.  However....I am still getting ER room bills from visits made over the summer when my Medicaid number was pending.  $1700 worth.  Yes, the bills have been submitted to the county and nothing has been done or paid.  I just got a bill for the 2 weeks of home oxygen therapy I had to be on after leaving the hospital on 16 Dec and it's nearly $1000!  They didn't even submit to Medicaid!!!  On the upside, my diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, acid reflux are all GONE, I am nearly 40 pounds down and will be able to participate in nursing school next fall when I start the University of Colorado! 

On another note, neither of my parents have health insurance.  My mother was in a coma in 2006 after coming down with antibiotic resistant pneumonia and walked out of there 2 months later.  With a $470,000 hospital bill and no job.  She will now need a liver transplant and has no way to pay for it...she is only 52.  Pops has Huntington's Disease, COPD, lead poisoning and issues related to alcoholism and just lost his job of 26 years when the owner of his shop just stopped paying the shop rent and they were evicted last year.  No insurance.  I fear I will lose BOTH my parents before they are even old enough to retire!!!

I cannot wait to finish my education and work somewhere that I know no one will be turned away due to inability to pay.  This country is so backwards in so many ways....

If you're planning on having a baby in the U.S.,  "maternity" coverage is often an extra charge on top of a regular monthly health premiums. When my son was born, we were on DH's insurance which was offered through the university he was working for at the time. It was considered to be *very* good coverage, but I still had to pay an additional $300/month for potential maternity coverage.

In the end, I had an emergency c-section with lots of complications and a hospital stay that was billed at about $18,000. Luckily we were only responsible for about $4000 of the delivery and hospitalization costs.

But again, this was with so-called "GREAT" insurance. I would shudder to think what costs those with poor coverage would encounter.

In 2009, when DH finally lost his fulltime teaching contract and we had to pay for private individual insurance, we basically made the decision that we could simply not afford the extra $600/month (for me alone) premium on TOP of the $500 we were paying for monthly bare bones medical coverage, to include maternity insurance.

Even if you wanted maternity coverage under the plan, you had to have been paying 12 months prior to the beginning of "maternity services" to even begin accessing your coverage----so we thanked our lucky stars that there weren't any baby surprises that year because given my history with a high risk births, another baby would have seriously put us into major financial strife.

So for potential situations such as that, I am grateful for the services of the NHS. Good coverage is out there if you have a decent plan through your employer. But for those that are suddenly out of work, or even self-employed, it's a tough world.

If you're planning on having a baby in the U.S.,  "maternity" coverage is often an extra charge on top of a regular monthly health premiums. When my son was born, we were on DH's insurance which was offered through the university he was working for at the time. It was considered to be *very* good coverage, but I still had to pay an additional $300/month for potential maternity coverage.

In the end, I had an emergency c-section with lots of complications and a hospital stay that was billed at about $18,000. Luckily we were only responsible for about $4000 of the delivery and hospitalization costs.

But again, this was with so-called "GREAT" insurance. I would shudder to think what costs those with poor coverage would encounter.

In 2009, when DH finally lost his fulltime teaching contract and we had to pay for private individual insurance, we basically made the decision that we could simply not afford the extra $600/month (for me alone) premium on TOP of the $500 we were paying for monthly bare bones medical coverage, to include maternity insurance.

Even if you wanted maternity coverage under the plan, you had to have been paying 12 months prior to the beginning of "maternity services" to even begin accessing your coverage----so we thanked our lucky stars that there weren't any baby surprises that year because given my history with a high risk births, another baby would have seriously put us into major financial strife.

So for potential situations such as that, I am grateful for the services of the NHS. Good coverage is out there if you have a decent plan through your employer. But for those that are suddenly out of work, or even self-employed, it's a tough world.

This is not correct across the board. First, you didn't have great insurance through your husband's employer if you had to pay extra for maternity. I have never heard of a group plan where maternity is extra. Second, for an individual plan, it isn't always that much, we have one and pay $150 more a month for it. The 12 month waiting period is for delivery, not for prenatal care. You can not put a blanket statement on an entire system when it varies by carrier.

I suppose that is part of the problem, I bet every place says their company has great insurance.

I used to work at T-Mobile in the US and our insurance covered pregnant women from enrolment and the had enrolment once a month.  So if it was on the 5th of each month and you started on the 6th you had to wait until next month to be covered, but you were covered for everything from that point on. 

All I did there was customer service as well.  The benefits there were amazing considering.  2 weeks holiday from the start plus a week of personal days, good pay, great phone plans.  Too bad I couldn't stand the work. 

Just to echo what bookgrl & andrea922 are saying. It really depends on your employer and what plan they have. When I was in the US I worked for County Governments in Calfiornia. We had 3 different insurance plans available & you could chose based on coverage & premium cost. Even with the lowest cost (Blue Shield PPO) it still covered maternity at no extra cost than the standard premium still an 80/20 with a co-pay for office visits & prescriptions but quite affordable (I think I paid $75/mo pre tax deduction).

Just to echo what bookgrl & andrea922 are saying. It really depends on your employer and what plan they have. When I was in the US I worked for County Governments in Calfiornia. We had 3 different insurance plans available & you could chose based on coverage & premium cost. Even with the lowest cost (Blue Shield PPO) it still covered maternity at no extra cost than the standard premium still an 80/20 with a co-pay for office visits & prescriptions but quite affordable (I think I paid $75/mo pre tax deduction).

Yeah, there are SO many variables!  We still have our US employer-sponsored insurance, and there's no surcharge for maternity.  If anything, my coverage is currently better -- a higher reimbursement rate and more charges are covered.  I wouldn't say it's a great plan, it's expensive with a high deductible, but it's solidly a good one.  I've had both better and worse.