"...my wife Katy found out that she was pregnant right about the time I received word that I’d won a Fulbright fellowship. We’d be in Trondheim when our first child was scheduled to arrive.
Naturally, one of our chief worries was getting health care coverage abroad. Katy had been covered by my insurance through the University of Minnesota, but when my teaching assistantship ended, we had to scramble. We called around to Blue Cross and other insurers for rates. Pregnancy is considered a “pre-existing condition,” as if it’s some sort of disease, and no one would have us. Even the health insurance guaranteed through the U.S. Secretary of State’s office for Fulbright grantees excludes pregnancy. Finally, we asked an official at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where I’d be studying, if we’d be covered by the national Norwegian system. Her response: “I don’t see why not.” We asked if she could send us the proper forms. “There’s really no rush,” she said, “You can just fill them out once you arrive.” Thanks to the health care mess in our own nation, which has conditioned us to be skeptical and nervous, we were panicked by this carefree, almost reckless attitude toward health insurance.
Back in Minnesota, without insurance we would have been facing a hospital bill for at least $5,000 for a normal delivery, or as much as $21,000 for a C-section or other complications—and that wouldn’t even include the physician fees. As it turned out, a simple residency permit for a year in Norway meant that the Norwegian government would take care of us, and cover the considerable expenses involved in having a baby. We received a pamphlet from the Royal Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, which confirmed, “Compulsorily insured under the National Insurance Scheme are all persons resident or working in Norway.”
No wonder Norway has had the highest quality of life among all nations for the last couple of years. “It’s not that we buy more things or have more things, it’s that we are guaranteed a high standard of living,” an American living in Oslo told me. “We don’t have two cars, we take the bus, and we can probably count on one hand the number of times we go out to eat.” While this may not be the American dream of wealth, Norway’s system offers its citizens a degree of stability and certainty unheard of in the U.S.: Your health care, higher education, and pension will be provided by the government, and you won’t be out on the street if you lose your job."
http://www.rakemag.com/features/detail.asp?catID=61&itemID=15314Oh, I forgot. We can't have this in America. Americans would never stand for it. Besides, we need the money for invading more countries to get "our" oil. :grr:
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
