Just wondering if there’s enough information on the current UHC plans about covering stuff like this. I’d be very interested in the first 2, as I don’t have dental or vision insurance, so have to pay out of pocket.
Who can say what, if anything, is going to emerge from the U.S. congress?
In most other first-world countries, the answer will, of course, be yes.
In some first world countries, the answer is sort of.
In the UK, poor people and those on a budget get free / heavily subsidised routine optical and routine dental treatment. (If you are carried into emergency with your face hanging off then everything is free).
But, there is a shortage of NHS dentists and many middle class people (UK definition) just go private for the convenience. Of course, British people really are a lot less fussed about their teeth than your typical American, so we don’t spend as much as you might.
Most people of all classes pay for their own glasses - NHS glasses have the cheapest frames and glass lenses. Most people want nicer frames and plastic lenses. Contact lenses are always provided privately. I think many people can get free sight tests but opticians don’t charge much for the tests anyway (since they charge for the designer frames and lenses).
Gynaecology is free, I’m told. No personal experience for chromosomal reasons. (I’ve never typed two of these words before, so apologies for spelling.)
I go into this level of detail for information, and in case others share njtt’s misconceptions about how UHC might be implemented.
In Spain it is “sort’a” for the first and second, a resounding “hell yeah” for the third.
Eye exams are covered, but most glasses stores offer them for free anyway; most people go directly to the store. Prescription glasses are covered but only to a very limited value (i.e., forget about those Dior frames and the non-reflective glasses that get darker when there’s more ambient light, like my mother once dumped €800 into).
Tooth exams and cleaning are covered, but very few procedures are; beautifying dentistry isn’t covered at all, so for example braces for me (I have irregular teeth but they fit perfectly and there’s no ill medical effects, which is why I never did get braces - at the dentist’s recommendation) wouldn’t be covered, whereas my brother’s were because they caused him a lot of stomach problems (he went to the dentist’s private practice because that way he didn’t need to miss school, but he could have gone to SS). Most people go to a private dentist. My current dentist doesn’t charge for exams, cleaning and one X-ray per year.
For obgyn, saying what is not covered is faster than stating what is: fertility treatments for couples which already have one or more children aren’t covered. If you want an abortion and there are no doctors in your area which perform them, SS pays to send you to the nearest one who will.
Oh, goodness. Don’t even get into the firestorm that will come of “government subsidized abortions.” I doubt that’ll go through except under dire circumstances (mother’s life is at risk, etc.). While the dems may have a majority now, the general populace has a lot of very vocal anti-abortionists. (It also has a lot of vocal pro-choicers, but still.)
Yeah well, thing is, right now it’s the ONLY obgyn procedure that your insurance carriers must cover; sometimes (see my previous rants on the subject), the only one they do cover.
So abortions are already covered and a single-payer system would have to pay for them for the same reasons that other payers already have to. The difference is in everything else:
- pelvic exams,
- mammograms,
- ultrasounds,
- fertility treatments,
- histerectomies (both for fertility reasons and for other reasons),
- hormone replacement therapy,
- birth,
- stay of mother and child in the hospital, either in normal rooms or special care,
etc.
SS having to bus the ladies over to the nearest place where they can get an abortion (which in Spain means one or two hours away) isn’t ideal, but they can’t force obgyns to perform them. If someone needs a fertility treatment that’s only available in one clinic in the whole country, SS pays for it. If someone needs eye surgery that’s only available in one hospital, SS pays for it. If someone needs an abortion because her life is in danger (which is the most common excuse and/or reason), SS pays for it. The key word is “need.” SS doesn’t pay for any medical procedures you “want,” but they pay for any medical procedure you “need” (at least that’s the idea, like every ideal it’s got problems on implementation, most notably in the mental health area).
The first two may or may not be covered (it’s quite common in the US for people to have private health insurance but no coverage for dental or vision) but I can not, for the life of me, imagine routine gynecological care NOT being covered.
Yeah, gynecology is kind of strange to include in this question, since it’s often included on US health plans even when they don’t otherwise cover preventative care.
I just kinda threw it in there since it’s an annual scheduled visit to a specialist doctor, not a General Practitioner or hospital.
:::blink:::
You don’t have to go to a gynecologist for, say, a pap smear and a mammogram. I get all that handled through my GP. GP’s can also dispense birth control. I believe in the US you could get all that done by a nurse, actually.
Just what did you think was involved in those “annual exams”?
I guess the answer to the OP would be “it depends on how the proposed UHC plan is structured.” Here’s what happens in Canada:
– OB/GYN visits are, to the best of my knowledge, covered.
– Dental and vision care are not normally covered. The general exception is when something occurs so as to make such care medically necessary in the opinion of a physician–for example, a patient sustains an injury to the face that requires dental surgery. In cases like this, the cost of the dentistry involved would be covered by the provincial plan. But routine checkups, fillings, root canals, extractions, etc. not caused by an injury are not covered by the provincial plan.
Most Canadians have a supplementary private insurance plan to cover the cost of dental, vision, prescriptions, etc. Often, these plans are provided by an employer, but not always; so they can be purchased privately also. Of course, the option to pay for these services out-of-pocket as needed is possible too.
In the US, the Gyn portion is generally covered. But when I was shopping for a private plan insurance carrier, there were BIG differences in plans, depending on the Maternity rider (the OB portion of OB/GYN). Hundreds of dollars per month. As my wife and I were thinking about another child, this was an important consideration on our part.
Thankfully, I was able to convert from contractor (crap bennies) to Full-time (great bennies), before we needed a private plan, so it became a nonissue for us.
Deleted - noticed I was essentially repeating what someone else said