The following excerpt from Metro Magazine in New Zealand is an important and balanced glimpse of the troubled and sick US Health care system.
Editor’s Note: My U.S. insurance premiums for my individual private policy with Anthem Blue Cross (New Hampshire) were US$ 500.00+ per month with a $2,500 yearly deductible. This deductible started over every year – payments toward the deductable could not be carried over to the next year. I was under insured, and was throwing money away. I stopped this policy a few months ago. In contrast, monthly insurance premiums for a family of four in New Zealand are approximately $100.00/per month with little or no deductibles. A part of my plan will be a flight to a NZ hospital if need be.
I was compelled to put this on MSI’s blog. Please encourage others to read this as well and pass it on.
Metro Magazine, New Zealand, April 2009
By Metro Staff Writer Frances Morton
Health Care USA
Even as parts of our health system struggle to cope with demand, entrepreneurs have launched a business flying Americans into Auckland for surgery. Bob Light lives in Cottonwood, Arizona, a small town (population 12,000) in the picturesque Verde River valley, 160km north of Phoenix. Cottonwood is *cowboy country, and the town was notorious for bootlegging in its heyday, attracting amusement-seekers from as far away as Los Angeles. These days, visitors are more likely to roll up for the **ghost towns and cactus-strewn desert scenery than wild times in the West. Light, 55, runs a landscaping business. His artificial hip needed replacing and was causing him so much trouble he could no longer work unless the job involved sitting down. His business is small, and he doesn’t have health insurance. In the complex American health insurance market, Light couldn’t find insurance he could afford and that truly do something for him.
That left him with two choices: get an operation in the States paying full price, or (more…)
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