America’s healthcare system, How is America’s healthcare system?

Like everything else in America, health insurance is something that varies from state to state. When Obamacare was introduced at the time, the biggest goal was to reduce the gap between states as much as possible and to reach a similar, standard and common health system throughout the country, but how successful this was is debatable.

First of all, let me say that if you came to America through a green card or in any other way, the first thing you should do as soon as you step into the country is to get health insurance.
this is absolutely no joke. If you don’t have health insurance, an ambulance can take you to the hospital one street away, costing $2,000, a simple dressing in the emergency room is $800, and a simple doctor’s visit can cost you $400. I will not go into the details of these figures, but these figures are not an exaggeration. We Turks generally have a “nothing will happen to me” mentality, but it’s not worth the risk. I personally have insurance even though I haven’t been to a doctor for 15 years because you never know what will happen tomorrow. There are people who get sick as soon as they get off the plane because of the weather change and have to go to the doctor and lose thousands of dollars with the dust of their feet.

However, one should not be too pessimistic. According to recent statistics, 92% of Americans have health insurance. Before Obamacare, this figure was 84%, and thanks to Obamacare, the rate of uninsured dropped from 16% to 8%. This rate is slightly lower than the insured rate in Germany and England, but after Obamacare, there was not much difference.

As I mentioned above, the healthcare system in America varies from state to state.
While there are states such as Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, and California that apply the Scandinavian model exactly as a healthcare system, there are also states such as Alabama and Texas that apply the opposite model. For example, as always, let me give Oregon as an example. With a law passed last year, a health insurance system called “oregon health plan” was introduced. Accordingly, single people with a monthly income of less than $ 1400, couples with an income of less than $ 1600 or families with children with an income of less than $ 2800 can have a completely free health insurance. This is the exact application of the Scandinavian model. The health insurance in this system covers almost all conceivable medical conditions (including giving birth, drug treatment, psychological treatment, external health).

Not every state is as generous as Oregon in this regard, but California has a more or less similar system. even a little bit more generous in california because you have to be at least a green card or citizen to get insurance in oregon, there are people who are illegal immigrants and get health insurance in california.

however, states’ own health insurance covers very few people. The vast majority (about 60%) of insured people in the United States are insured by the company they work for. Since the insurance policy and fees of each company are different, a complete unity has not been achieved here. For example, there are differences between the insurance provided by Nike to its employees and the insurance provided by Intel. In general, insurances of large and corporate companies are more comprehensive and cheaper. While the insurance provided by the companies covers the family and children of the employee, the fee varies between 500-600 dollars per month. As a personal example: at my current company I don’t pay any money for health insurance covering myself and my spouse, but at the previous company I was paying $200 a month just for my own insurance.

When you go to the doctor without insurance, even the simplest procedure can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. There are several reasons for this.

1) when you go to the emergency room of a hospital, they have to accept you and give you the first response no matter what. legal obligation of these hospitals even if you do not have an identity card with you and you do not have money. That’s why the homeless and illegal immigrants often go to the doctor and hang out in the emergency room when there’s an emergency. Because they don’t pay, the squash goes to those who pay because the hospital is trying to subtract everyone’s expenses from those who pay.

2) Since emergency rooms are for emergencies only, hospitals want to reduce the use of emergency rooms and they do this by keeping the fees high. Since they cannot turn anyone away from the law, they do not want every person with a headache or a runny nose to be in the emergency room and use prices as a deterrent.

3) Since studying medicine in the USA is extremely expensive, doctors graduate with debts of 200-300 thousand and they pass this number on to the customer because they pay student loans of several thousand dollars a month.

4) If the doctors do wrong treatment and cause harm to the patient, the patient has the right to go to court and to seek compensation at a very serious rate (malpractice). Doctors buy special insurance just in case, which costs thousands of dollars each month. In the end, if the doctor is taken to court, the insurance company pays the compensation. This money is passed on to the customer.

5) Since the salaries of health personnel from nurses to caregivers are quite high and above world standards, this is also reflected in the prices. It’s not uncommon for a nurse in the US to earn $100,000 or more annually.