I remember somebody mentioned that the cost of ablation is 15,000 pounds in UK and that your NHS picks the tab.
Well, I just received bill for the EP lab (without costs of anesthesia, doctors cost, hospital stay etc...)
Take a deep breath - $63,700.00!!! My insurance will pay 80%.
Wait until I get my hospital overnight stay bill.
T think the cost of living in UK is higher than in USA. That's what I concluded during my visit and stay in London last year.
There is something SERIOUSLY wrong in USA.
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adriatico
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To be honest £15,000 in the UK for all that equipment and high cost facilities, and all the staff for what is a long procedure, plus overnight stay or more etc etc. It seems a bit light to me. But $63,700 is the other end of the scale!!!! Amazing. Where on earth does all that money go?
As you say, USA is usually cheaper than UK for most things. Doesn't make sense.
I'm afraid it's just the insurance companies in the US overcharging to boost their profits. It's a greedy world now! My sister lives in Texas and she's always telling me about the medical costs there. She also says how much the real cost of pills are and what insurance companies are charging.
I'm not defending the insurance companies by any means but it's the hospitals that charge the fees to the insurance company. In Texas here at one hospital they charge $3,000 for a special titanium screw that costs $40 to make.
That is fearful - and you are left with a bill of over 12,000 USD? I often wonder how the richest nation on the planet can justify this. Different country, different priorities, I suppose.
I often give thanks for our NHS and hope it can keep struggling on.
Yes, the NHS is amazing, very efficient, and we have a government hell bent on taking it away and replacing it with the US system. Hoping on hope for a change in the upcoming election.
On the "hotel costs" of an over night hospital stay in UK think about £500 I believe.(Area dependent obviously.) When you consider the wastage due to bed blocking etc ( I was sitting twiddling my thumbs for eight days waiting for a bed in another hospital for my angiogram ) it is no surprise that NHS is in trouble. Add in the people who read A and E as local doctor and waste huge amounts of time with minor complaints or alcohol induced accidents and all in all I think we do pretty well in our septre'd isle.
That's political too Bob. People with alcohol problems often have serious underlying problems caused by amongst other things, childhood abuse. What about AF caused by lifestyle, broken bones caused by sport and car racing(!) , people having too many children (or any!). I could go on.
I was astonished at my ablation bill too. Over $100,000. That was the billing from the hospital before the insurance company said how much they'd actually allow the hospital/doctors/etc to charge. It was a much smaller bill after that. And fortunately my share of the bill was tiny. Given the amazing technology they use to do this, I'm not surprised at the cost. But still....
Yep mine was about 64,000, with a 3,300 copay. I applied for financial assistance as I'm only working part time. Maybe you can too? But yes it's expensive, luckily now I have state insurance.
I too am very greatful for Medicare (australia ) while I had to wait quite a while for my cryoblation I received the best of care from the best doctors at no cost to me
We are lucky to have the NHS and yes it is free at point of treatment and long may it continue ....but it's a service that most of us have financially contributed to for most of our life. Please I agree with Bobd ....we should keep politics out of this wonderful forum. Roy
It is natural to think the NHS "owes us" because we have contributed all our lives, but the plain facts are that all our taxes and national insurance payments are spent or allocated in the year we pay them so the reality is that when we were healthy and never visited a doctor or hospital we were paying for other's ill health, and now we are ill, our younger and healthier sisters and brothers are paying for ours. The NHS is therefore more like a state health insurer with few restrictions on cover and no excesses.
Its great that you have highlighted this ... so many people in the UK moan and complain about our dear NHS when from my experience it is brilliant... the staff are so good, professional and helpful.. and as you highlight it is free. I I hope your second bill is not a painful one! Take care and speedy recovery 😊
That's pretty close to what my final bill was, too, Adriatico. The difference is, my health insurance is Medicare with Tricare (military veteran husband) for secondary. Between them, they "approved" less than a third of that and actually paid just over $12,500. And that's all that was paid! By contract, the health care providers have to accept that as full payment. I asked my doctor about it, and he said they just have to count on all the others making up the difference. Now, tell me we don't have a broken system, too. Somewhere between socialized medicine and free enterprise, for the elderly anyway. The problem arises when doctors choose not to accept Medicare patients. I tried several highly qualified docs in our area for knee replacement before finding a large clinic who accepts Medicare...but they won't do it until my knees are worse (several years ago, the doc whose nurse won't call back now that I'm on Medicare was ready to, but I put it off). Now, I had hoped to get it done before they're so bad I can't get around on one while the other is healing, but it's getting harder and harder to keep up a level of activity needed for other general health. And now, at 70, the government will set other limits on care, I'm told. It's hard to separate politics from health care when the decisions about our health care are driven by government policy.
I am from USA. I had 2 ablations at Duke hospital and each costed like 125000 dollars. I am glad I had insurance and i only paid around $3000 and rest was paid by my insurance. One time I had to stay overnight at an emergency hospital for Af episode and was charged $ 30000 . Medical expenses are skyrocketing here.
My ablation bill here in California was $86k U.S all in. Thankfully, Kaiser Permanente paid for everything save for a small co-pay. Yes, the overall pricing here in the US is crazy high . On the other hand, UK has other issues such as the long wait times for mere doctor visits which can take months. I can get into my EP within two weeks and waited only 6-8 weeks for each of my Ablations. Pick your poison-- high prices or long wait times.
I would have thought going private in France or Spain (mostly English speaking staff) could be an option, or even India. I had the impression that even Switzerland was cheaper private than UK (though costs of hanging around there for recovery etc might be higher). Therefore I did some googling. This site is a search engine for private care. privatehealth.co.uk/conditi...
To my surprise a standard ablation costs between 2595 and 3131 pounds. I have no idea about all the extras. Then I looked at having a Cataract. Prices varied between 606 and 4295. Something is wrong there, a cataract costing more than an ablation.
We have the best politicians "money" can buy here in the US. We will never have a decent healthcare benefit program because of the insurance companies and big Pharmaceutical companies pay money to our elected officials. Our members of congress and senate have their "own" medical benefits program. They don't have to pay for it like us. I cannot forsee us ever having a national healthcare program. The Obamacare plan was not perfect but it helped many, many individuals that I personally know. I think we have wonderful care and great medical facilities and you wait very little time for operations, but it comes with a cost. I had my ablation on the 28th of February.
All went very well and my total cost for surgery and one night in the hospital was $90,000. Of course the insurance company adjusted the bill, but I am still responsible for $8,000 or so. It's a racket.
But I am just thankful I had a great Dr. And a heart heathly enough for them to work on.
My EP told me after the ablation that if I had paid for it privately it would have cost £20,000. I would suggest to all those Americans that don't have Insurance cover to spend their money wisely and buy a plane ticket and save themselves around $70,000!
Has anyone from the US got a breakdown of the cost of the ablation, or do you just get a total figure?
Hi all, I don't think it is being political to say that our NHS is being starved of funds , my local A and E was closed over 12 months ago. People of all political persuasions have stood outside the A andE department every Saturday morning for an hour in protest for 54 weeks now. A few weeks ago a 12 hour A&E department was re-instated. The NHS is the jewel in the crown of this country and surely whatever our political persuasion we should be talking to our politicians, especially now there is a general election coming , to ask them how they see the future of the NHS .I apologise if this post offends some people, it is NOT a political point I am making, just an ex nurse fearing for something I hold very dear. Best wishes Kath
I was quoted £25,000 for a private ablation. That includes EP fee, the anaesthetist, radiographer, radiologists, technicians, specialist nurses, and hospital costs. Needless to say I didn't go for it and am waiting for a second "touch up" ablation in the NHS.
But in spite of the NHS being wonderful (in many ways it is) I am distressed to know from my EP that his long waiting list is getting even longer because the hospital is short of anaesthetists.
A couple of weeks ago he sat around on his ablation day doing very little because there was NO anaesthetist. The two scheduled procedures were cancelled. This is apparently not uncommon. The hospital asked him to do extra sessions on another day.....meaning he would have been paid twice, once for the shift where he sat around and again for the extra session. He is angry because this is inefficient, costly, and far from wonderful. Fortunately more anaesthetists are being recruited so fingers crossed I'll get my second procedure this side of Christmas.
Well,the NHS is not free!Tax payers pay through their wages,My contributions are currently over £200 a month. But agree,your country seems to be going down the pan!Sorry!
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Post-ablation (just out)
Wow, don't know what just hit me
Follow to my aborted ablation
Just home after 2nd ablation
