The fact insurance was mentioned re-awakened a few brain cells. Sure, if your employer is paying, fine. Fine too, to keep it up when you retire, but maybe not otherwise.... A wealthy friend bemoans that despite paying top dollar for health insurance for decades, whenenever he or his wife needs something, it mysteriously 'doesn't apply'. Another 'comfortably off' friend had a hip replacement c. three years ago. Cost him £30,000 privately. A week later, it failed and had to be done again. And the surgeon billed him again. I wouldn't have paid.
As for myself, a couple of years ago I elected to have a small procedure done privately. Apparently the European cost of this is E100. Here, one pays the consultant and his team (several hundred pounds) and the hospital charges for the use of their facilities on top. Because the consultant was delayed, I was offered a chair to sit on. After the procedure (which was abandoned anyway as the sedative didn't work) I laid on top of a bed for half an hour or so. For two hours on a chair and half an hour on a bed (plus a cup of tea and a sandwich) the hospital billed me £1,200. I refused to pay and it ended up in court, where they rapidly accepted my offer. No wonder medical insurance is so expensive, with hospitals ripping the companies off like that.
