More people have died by suicide in the past 17 years than were killed by 30 years of the Troubles

That scared me too, before I moved here, particularly as I have a chronic illness. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), medical insurance companies can only ask you 4 things when you sign up with them. Age, Sex, Location, Do you smoke.

Before ACA, they asked your entire medical history, and just like car insurance companies, if you were a driver with a lot of claims, if you had an existing medical condition, they could charge a fortune or else not offer coverage at all. However, now they can't find out your history and cant raise prices based on your medical history or drop you if you develop an expensive illness.

The ACA is disliked by many Americans because it raised the price of insurance for everyone. The healthy people are paying more now to offset those less healthy. Its essentially socialized healthcare but its done through insurance companies.

Before ACA I couldn't have moved to the USA because insurance companies would have charged me like $10k a month for insurance or just not offered it at all.

As far as costs go, most employers will pay a large chunk of your monthly medical insurance, that is offered as a perk, so you get your Salary + Medical & Dental Insurance & Pension etc etc. Many employers will offer to pay 75-90% of your health insurance premium.

Monthly I'm paying about $50 towards my medical & dental insurance. A GP visit costs $15 each time I visit, a specialist costs $30 each time I visit. If I ever have to go to Urgent Care (Out of hours, no appointment doctors offices), they are $45.

In all cases the insurance pays the rest of the bill. For example, going to my GP and getting a blood test, they bill me about $200, but my payment is only the $15, insurance covers the rest.

My monthly prescription costs $10 (insurance pays the rest).

If I ever had to go into hospital I have to pay up to my deductible ($1000), and then i pay 20% of everything after that, up to my maximum out of pocket for any one year which is $4000. Which is manageable. So if I went to hospital and spent a week there with operations etc and it cost $200k, I would pay $4000.

/r/northernireland Thread Parent Link - irishnews.com