BootsnAll Travel Community

Does anyone have a general ballpark guess as to the price of a general clinic visit in either Canada or Australia? Assume no insurance reimbursement. And what about a biopsy or specialist consultation?

Any information would be much appreciated.

australia its about $50

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Originally posted by philosopher:
australia its about $50

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$50 Australian??? Man! So cheap! U.S. healthcare sucks the biggest, white ass.

Anyone know if it would be generally cheaper for a visit like this in Canada or Oz?

I keep hearing that US health care is expencive. just out of curiosity, how much do you have to pay.

Well, you see, if you’re lucky, you never see the true costs of a clinic/hospital visit as your insurance should cover everything (except a co-pay, which could be up to $50 for a emergency room visit). You get a statement from you insurance company after each visit, but I never looked at them, as it made me sick all over again to see the costs. There are stories floating around about emergency room visits, where all they end up doing is dispensing four Ibuprofen (over-the-counter pain killer) and kicking you to the curb with a bill of like $200. This may be urban legend, but I doubt it.

Perhaps someone with the guts to review their statements could weigh in here?

So, fortunately for me, all I ever paid was my monthly insurance payment (which came out to about $40 a month, covering doctors visits, hospitals, medication, etc, with a co-pay, $15 per bottle for medication, $20 per clinic visit). So even with insurance, that’s a lot of money to be paying just in case you get a bronchial infection once a year. But we Americans are programmed to plan for a worst case scenario, so those of us who can afford it ante up for the max coverage. You never know when you’re going to get cancer or need major surgery, which of course could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars after the procedure, post-care stuff, meds and whatever else they can tack on.

Dental is an entirely different insurance. I paid about $8 a month, for basic coverage, which covered regular examinations. Major operations required me to chip in like 40% of the total cost, but I have good teeth, so I rolled the dice there and never got burned.

However you look at it, a road trip to Canada starts to look very attractive for healthcare, be it treatment or medication (the Canadian medication import into the U.S. industry is just taking off, despite vicious opposition by Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies. With all the money they have to burn, I’m sure they have the legal power to shut this operation down eventually and seniors will have to go back to eating one moderate meal a day and living in half-busted retirement homes so they can afford their pills).

Arg, I’m moving into rant mode. Better stop now.

Health Insurance? What's that?

I don't have any.

I am not alone; over 40 million Americans don't have any Health Insurance.

Something is seriously wrong with our system.

I know when I didn't have my medicare card here (lost the renewal forms and yay for socialized healthcare) the emergency clinic (IE good for minor non-emergency emergencies) charged me $35 cad. I'm not sure if thats the going rate for citizens of if that is the rate everyone gets.

John

Hi, i just wanted to tell something , it may help somebody , once i was in the states and i got sick (kidneestones), reaally sick, and i had to go to the next hospital.
I was afraid cos´all the stories i´ve heard from the states in europe , for my surprise i saw a lot of notices on the walls telling people ,hospitals have the duty of give medical attention to everybody , with or with out insurance, that it doesn´t mean u are not going to pay , but at least u know u are not going to die on the streets like a dog .(what i´ve heard before that experience was exactly the last comment).
so at least after they settle me up , they gave me my bill and they told me i was able to apply for special payments.
(i know people , us citizens, who started to pay bills after 15 years of the medical attention)
the point is , it may not be the best health program in the world , but at least is not like the 90 % of the people in europe think.

Piamontes, what you just described is one of the main reasons health insurance here is ridiculous, and costs are increasing -- it's because of the huge number of people who don't have insurance; thus those who do have it have high rates (to cover those who don't), and thus the clinics/hospitals charge outlandishly high fees. It's a vicious circle, and like Joe summed up, something is seriously wrong w/ our system.

As for average costs out-of-pocket, for a regular doctor visit (i.e. a physical), from the look of my statements they'd cost between 50 and 100. That's without blood tests, or shots, etc. Just a plain physical. And just a plain visit to the obgyn (oh, yay), without insurance, would cost between 200 and 300. But for me, I pay the copay amt of $25/visit, plus the $46 every two weeks that comes out of my paycheck.

I have to say though that at least this past year, it was worth it. I had the kidney stone issue last fall, and with all of the appointments, outpatient surgery, x-rays, anesthesiology, etc, the grand total out-of-pocket would have been close to $20,000. Since I had insurance, I paid about $1600.

Lynn

I do realize how old this thread is, but... I just wanted to share some frightening information. I work at a small doctors office. We don't accept HMO's, only insurance with out of network benefits. Which means a lot of people are excluded unfortunately. We couldn't survive with the HMO's though. SO...

New patient visits $350.
Follow Ups $85-225
Labs- could easily hit $1000