The high standard of health quality in the United States

The medical-hospital system in the United States is high-quality, modern, and involves the extensive use of state-of-the-art technology in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Doctors, hospitals, clinics and pharmaceutical labs are always developing new and advanced treatments.

However, while the health care is quite reliable, the costs involved are significant, among the most expensive in the world. For the moment there is no free universal health plan like in many other countries. It is essentially a private system and treatment is not free. Even state hospitals charge fees for their services.

Hospitals treat emergency cases for free to those who can not afford it, but only until the patient’s condition stabilizes. Americans are responsible for their own health insurance; most receive it through their employers or by enrolling themselves and their families in private plans.

Getting adequate health insurance is extremely important before moving to the US, which is the main reason we’ve included this information section for you. If you are a salaried employee, employers generally offer group health insurance to all eligible employees. If you are starting your own business, you can get group coverage for your business as long as there are at least two members (small group in a small business).

Unlike the employer-sponsored plan where premiums (or a large percentage of them) are normally paid by the employer, here your own company pays the premiums, which can be a deductible in your business income tax. If you are not eligible any of these alternatives, you will have to find an individual or family health plan and be responsible for all costs.

There are many types of health plans available in the market and you should research them in detail before choosing the one that best fits your needs. While choosing, you need to compare benefits, costs, accredited network, exclusions, how pre-existing illnesses are treated, among other details. Unfortunately, the options are not usually cheap.

Family plans that cover medications, hospitalization, general practitioners and medical specialists, as well as laboratory results can easily cost $ 2,500- $ 5,000 per month (prices may vary greatly depending on the options available). Group health plans can be cheaper if you can be part of one. Dental and ophthalmic plans cost much less and are usually obtained separately.

The “Affordable Care Act” (also called “Obamacare”) is a recent law aimed at improving the current healthcare system, increasing people’s access to health coverage, adding new protections to policyholders, and trying to make health cheaper and accessible.

There is a segment of society that opposes the law, because to make the new system work, it will require everyone to be insured or else they would potentially have to pay a fine. In the long term, health insurance costs are expected to become more reasonable.