The Insurance Dilemma: US v. The World
One of the most frequent questions we get from friends when they hear we quit our jobs is, “What are you going to do about health insurance?” I get it. This is a major concern for many. And without coverage, we are all just one accident away from bankruptcy, right?
The price of insurance is shocking. The coverage and those hoops to jump through. I feel the price of health coverage in U.S. is out of control. My former employer offered health coverage. It would be considered the ‘Cadillac’ health coverage. When I quit, I was able to purchase that coverage through COBRA for $1600 a month. What?! My family rarely used it other than for the standard annual checkups with the doctor or dentist. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad and fortunate to have quality coverage but $1600 seems so steep and not a realistic addition to our new budget.
To put this into perspective a bit, I recently purchased coverage from World Nomads for our first 90 days of travel to Europe. If we need to utilize the health system in Europe we are covered for $100,000 of medical coverage (per person), $750 of dental coverage (per person) and $10,000 death/dismemberment coverage. In addition to the medical & dental, there are incremental perks like vehicle coverage, trip cancellation & trip interruption along with lost/stolen baggage or personal items. Total cost $899.81 for the entire trip length. That’s it. Only $300 per month or, viewed differently, $1300 less per month if I remained in the U.S. on my current plan. Plus, I still have to buy my auto insurance separately if I stayed in Montana.
Now a friend brought up that $100,000 can be gone in a flash if you go to the hospital for a surgery. My brother recently had a hip replacement. He has insurance and the total cost was nearly $40,000. Compare that cost for the same hip replacement in the U.K. or France and its only 25% of the cost (U.K. $12,000 / France $11,000). If you break an arm or leg in the U.S. you could be looking at $15,000 for hospital care. In Italy or France, the cost is considerably lower with Italy reporting $3,900 and France reporting $3,750. It appears that the insurance coverage will go farther in Europe than in the U.S. I honestly hope not to test it out with a broken arm as one of the most common accidents to happen when traveling I am glad to know we have the coverage plus room to spare.
Now if we could just get the kids to stop climbing trees in the US.
