An exception to this is dentristry, which I never understood as being treated separate from other health issues in both the UK and America. I guess it’s because it’s extremely rare for a dental issue to develop into a six-figure-plus bill. (And in addition, I assume that if you went to an NHS point of delivery with a dental emergency such as an infected tooth they’d take it out without having to pay at least initially because it is indeed health-threatening?)
I think in that case, the boundary may be whether you turn up at an NHS dental hospital or go to your local dentist (who will usually be a self-employed private contractor who may or may not take patients on NHS terms, which will include some upfront fee - and just how much of an emergency they consider it). I had a tooth which, it turned out, had failed through infection and root resorption. I went to my own dentist, as an NHS patient, and paid the normal NHS fee for an extraction - £58 if memory serves.
A footnote on the insurance point. The NHS does, post facto, reclaim from insurance companies its treatment costs where there has been compensation for personal injury, to the tune of about £180m a year. Not a lot given the size of the budget, but every little helps:
In Norway, you have a legal right to medically necessary healthcare. This does not include cosmetic procedures unless they are reconstructive or medically necessary. The thing about dentistry is that the limits between medical and cosmetic are a bit more blurry. Medically, you may well be able to do without a front tooth or two, but most people will pay to keep them if possible.
In Spain, dentistry is covered - but not cosmetic dentistry. My brother Ed had braces due to actual medical need; he could have received it from the UHC system, but going to a private dentist made for more-convenient hours. If I’d ever had braces it would have been for purely aesthetic reasons: not covered. People tend to have the idea that public-system dentistry only covers pulling teeth, but the one time I was a customer of a large dentistry chain and they wanted me to get an expensive test, they sent me to the public dentist :rolleyes:. My current dentist is an independent; I have a wisdom tooth which may need major surgery at some point, and if it does, it’ll be through the public system (independent dentists don’t have hospital beds).
So, in Spain while there is a difference, it’s got more to do with public perception than with actual differences in coverage. A lot of people go to private dentists, not because the work they need isn’t covered, but because they think it isn’t.
Yes. Something like this (I forget the details but he was bleeding) happened to a colleague of mine. He went to the dentist and was seen immediately; the appointment times for the practice’s other patients were reshuffled according to need.