How do others manage?

[Ken Shelmerdine]

All this medicare, medicaid, interstate dialysis confuses the hell out of me as a Brit. All i know is that I can dialyse anyware in the UK at no cost to me. All I have to do is tell my dialysis NHS holiday coordinator giving 2 months notice and the hotel we want to stay at and she sorts it all out. There are also plenty of dialysis centres in Europe and Mediterranean holiday destinations which have reciprocal agreements with NHS. Up to now I've been to Italy, Majorca and in October Portugal and the D has not cost me a penny.

Our NHS has many faults but thank god we Brits don't have to go through the hassle and stress of dealing with medical insurance companies!

[MooseMom]

Our NHS has many faults but thank god we Brits don't have to go through the hassle and stress of dealing with medical insurance companies!

What??   You mean you don't believe in liberty and freedom?  Oh dear God...you must be a (gasp!) socialist!  Oh, the horror, the horror!!!

[monrein]

In Ontario, our provincial health insurance will reimburse the patient $210 per treatment, I guess that's what's allotted here.  The Kidney Foundation offers interest-free loans to patients who travel and when OHIP reimburses the patient, the loan can be re-paid.

Of course, all this travel business is still expensive since dialysis in the US for example can cost up $400 to $1000 per session (according to KF literature) and the patient will have to cover the difference. 

There are usually reciprocal arrangements between provinces within Canada and way back when I used to travel between Ontario and Nova Scotia I paid nothing.

Anyone from here dialyzed in another province recently?

[Bill Peckham]

In Ontario, our provincial health insurance will reimburse the patient $210 per treatment, I guess that's what's allotted here.  The Kidney Foundation offers interest-free loans to patients who travel and when OHIP reimburses the patient, the loan can be re-paid.

Of course, all this travel business is still expensive since dialysis in the US for example can cost up $400 to $1000 per session (according to KF literature) and the patient will have to cover the difference. 

There are usually reciprocal arrangements between provinces within Canada and way back when I used to travel between Ontario and Nova Scotia I paid nothing.

Anyone from here dialyzed in another province recently?

That's about what Medicare in the US pays out per treatment (80% of $230 to $250) and so we'd face the same sticker shock if Medicare reimbursed for foreign travel but $200 would help a lot people who always wanted to see Paris, see Paris. One way travel could be supported outside changes to reimbursement would be if units struck reciprocal agreements unit to unit.

If American dialysis providers agreed to charge all Canadians at the US Medicare allowed rate and in return Canadian units agreed to charge Americans at the Canadian equivalent rate both groups of patients would have greater access to travel while using incenter dialysis. So a Canadian visiting Seattle would be charge 100% of the Medicare allowed rate of ~$230, they would pay and when they got home they'd get reimbursed ~$210.  And vise versa. Why not?

[rsudock]

Our NHS has many faults but thank god we Brits don't have to go through the hassle and stress of dealing with medical insurance companies!

What??   You mean you don't believe in liberty and freedom?  Oh dear God...you must be a (gasp!) socialist!  Oh, the horror, the horror!!!

 

[Ken Shelmerdine]

Our NHS has many faults but thank god we Brits don't have to go through the hassle and stress of dealing with medical insurance companies!

What??   You mean you don't believe in liberty and freedom?  Oh dear God...you must be a (gasp!) socialist!  Oh, the horror, the horror!!!

  Oh the irony1

[amanda100wilson]

I fail to understand what some of you are saying.  No one is asking for Medicare or Medicaid to pay for a holiday, or travel for that matter.  All people like Bill are saying is that you require dialysis whether you do or you don't travel, so why not have dialysis paid for when you are away from home as well as when you aren't? 

[Rain]

I've been able to get dialysis in B.C but got denied when I wanted to go to Quebec city twice.  My transplant coordinator told me to give up, she has not seen quebec accept any ontario patients.

[Riki]

I went to Ottawa from PEI last year with no trouble.  When I go to New York, I pay $400US per treatment, and PEI reimburses $495Can per treatment, so it generally works out that I get it all back.  I never have any extra medications, like arenesp or anything like that.  I get it either before I leave, or after I get back, cuz I'd have to pay for it there.  I take bandaids with me too, cuz you have to pay for them as well

[Ken Shelmerdine]

I can relate to needing a vacation FindingNeverland.  Having said that, we are happy to offer you dialysis for a week and accommodation in St. Lucia (no charge).  You would have use of a very nice 3 bedroom house overlooking the sea, transport to and from dialysis and your dialysis treatments included.  There is room for your husbands family also.  Sorry we cannot afford airfair.  The only condition is that it would have to be this summer.

This thread started way back in June and despite all the the responses from IHD, FindingNeverland has never added any further contribution apart from her first post. There was the offer from St. Lucia and I for one am interested to know whether or not you were able to  take up the offer so please Neverland a bit of feedback would be nice.