Marius L
4 of a Kind
Me and my girlfriend of eight years just had our first baby, and it really got me thinking about the Norwegian health care system. Considering health care has been a hot topic in the US for a long time I figured I wanted to share it with you guys.
After reading about several others here on PCF with news like this in the last couple of years I suddenly started thinking about how this experience differs from country to country, and I just couldn't help but be amazed at how awesome our Norwegian social democractic welfare state is.
Before I start with the pregnancy stuff, here's a little introduction to our health care system:
In Norway we have (basically) free universal health care for all our residents. Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, live in the North or South, everyone gets the care and help they need. There are some very minor fees for regular doctors appointments (like 20-30$ for a regular check up), but for the people that for some reason needs to have more than just regular check ups/ gets hospitalized/ need more expensive meds/ are in an accident or whatever else health related - the government will pay everything that's above 2390 Norwegian kroner (about 300$). That number is for the whole of 2019, so when you reach that limit, you still get exactly the same care as everybody else, but you don't need to pay anything for the rest of the year.
This goes for:
Prescription drugs,
Hospital bills,
Doctors appointments,
You name it
An example from my life:
When I was in sixth grade my mom got cancer for the first time, and over the years she has battled the illness several times since it keeps coming back. She is still doing good, but she has been taking meds daily for at least the last ten years, and over the years she has had several different periods of chemotherapy, surgery and longer hospitalizations. I can only imagine the price tag of all this, but luckily it was never a topic of discussion. She always got to focus on what was important, namely getting better! Financial stuff was never an issue. I know that in the US most people (?) have some sort of health insurance, but from what I have heard the hospital bills still tend to be crazily high.
Now for pregnancy and child birth there are some special rules here. It's completely free of charge and thus not a part of the yearly medical spending limit I mentioned earlier.
What this includes is different from case to case, depending on whether or not there are complications with the pregnancy or after birth. Regardless it is free. The standard is:
- Monthly checkup from doctor or midwife throughout the pregnancy.
- ultrasound in week 18.
- extra checkups late in the pregnancy
- breastfeeding class
- "preparing to be parents"-class
- 2 nights in the hospital after giving birth
- regular vaginal birth or C-section based on need (we can't choose c-section unless there is a medical need for it)
- different sorts of painkillers, like epidural based on need/wants
+ Whatever is needed if there's complications
All this for the solid price of 0.00 USD.
I read somewhere online that someone got really crazy hospital bills after giving birth in the US, but not sure what a standard price is if you have insurance. Anyone care to share their experience with this?
Spending a few years on this forum it seems its pretty regular that someone on here has either family with medical issues or have medical issues themselves that they have trouble paying for. It must be really hard to have to rely on help from friends or even strangers in an already extremely though situation to make ends meet. It really sadens me to see, as I don't think the US system is very fair. It's perplexing to be honest, with all the kind souls here constantly voluntaring and organizing sales and events to help out people in need, but it still seems many people don't want a health care system that just helps people by default.
Now of course the money for all this comes from somewhere, and yes we pay taxes, and you bet I'll happily keep paying them knowing I'm taken care of if something happens to me or my family.
Thanks for reading. And by the way, if you made it this far, everything is good with the baby and I'm super stoked for this new chapter in my life!
After reading about several others here on PCF with news like this in the last couple of years I suddenly started thinking about how this experience differs from country to country, and I just couldn't help but be amazed at how awesome our Norwegian social democractic welfare state is.
Before I start with the pregnancy stuff, here's a little introduction to our health care system:
In Norway we have (basically) free universal health care for all our residents. Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, live in the North or South, everyone gets the care and help they need. There are some very minor fees for regular doctors appointments (like 20-30$ for a regular check up), but for the people that for some reason needs to have more than just regular check ups/ gets hospitalized/ need more expensive meds/ are in an accident or whatever else health related - the government will pay everything that's above 2390 Norwegian kroner (about 300$). That number is for the whole of 2019, so when you reach that limit, you still get exactly the same care as everybody else, but you don't need to pay anything for the rest of the year.
This goes for:
Prescription drugs,
Hospital bills,
Doctors appointments,
You name it
An example from my life:
When I was in sixth grade my mom got cancer for the first time, and over the years she has battled the illness several times since it keeps coming back. She is still doing good, but she has been taking meds daily for at least the last ten years, and over the years she has had several different periods of chemotherapy, surgery and longer hospitalizations. I can only imagine the price tag of all this, but luckily it was never a topic of discussion. She always got to focus on what was important, namely getting better! Financial stuff was never an issue. I know that in the US most people (?) have some sort of health insurance, but from what I have heard the hospital bills still tend to be crazily high.
Now for pregnancy and child birth there are some special rules here. It's completely free of charge and thus not a part of the yearly medical spending limit I mentioned earlier.
What this includes is different from case to case, depending on whether or not there are complications with the pregnancy or after birth. Regardless it is free. The standard is:
- Monthly checkup from doctor or midwife throughout the pregnancy.
- ultrasound in week 18.
- extra checkups late in the pregnancy
- breastfeeding class
- "preparing to be parents"-class
- 2 nights in the hospital after giving birth
- regular vaginal birth or C-section based on need (we can't choose c-section unless there is a medical need for it)
- different sorts of painkillers, like epidural based on need/wants
+ Whatever is needed if there's complications
All this for the solid price of 0.00 USD.
I read somewhere online that someone got really crazy hospital bills after giving birth in the US, but not sure what a standard price is if you have insurance. Anyone care to share their experience with this?
Spending a few years on this forum it seems its pretty regular that someone on here has either family with medical issues or have medical issues themselves that they have trouble paying for. It must be really hard to have to rely on help from friends or even strangers in an already extremely though situation to make ends meet. It really sadens me to see, as I don't think the US system is very fair. It's perplexing to be honest, with all the kind souls here constantly voluntaring and organizing sales and events to help out people in need, but it still seems many people don't want a health care system that just helps people by default.
Now of course the money for all this comes from somewhere, and yes we pay taxes, and you bet I'll happily keep paying them knowing I'm taken care of if something happens to me or my family.
Thanks for reading. And by the way, if you made it this far, everything is good with the baby and I'm super stoked for this new chapter in my life!