Thanks for the info.
Some international insurance companies have tried to introduce employer-provided insurances in Denmark, too, but the first examples were not cheap and coverage quickly demonstrated to be hard to find out.
Later, they changed the coverage, so that they basically offer to cover the costs of treatments, that the public insurance system would cover, too, except that they pay for getting things done immediately instead of having to wait if the public system has a delay. This gives a much more well defined coverage, and makes sense: If you're in a job, extra effort is done to make sure that you can spend your time working.
How do the U.S. employer-provided insurances handle coverage if people need to stop working for a serious amount of time (getting fired?) because of health problems?
In Denmark, it would work like this:
* Employee is diagnosed with cancer (or similar)
* Employer typically gives the employee the freedom to choose to work or not, for some months, while the employee figures out what the case is
* If the employee is away for more than 3-6 months, he/she is typically fired, but gets a sum of money depending on the diagnose. In case of serious cancer, that sum of money is significant.
* While the person was in the company, the company insurance may speed up treatments etc. using financial aid.
* After being fired, the public health care system pays all expenses.
* Being fired, the person gets 2-4 years of unemployment benefits, if the person has paid to a tax-subsidized unemployment insurance. This is a significant amount of money, which typically means that the patient can continue to pay mortgage etc.
* After 2-4 years, the person gets social financial help if he/she doesn't have a significant positive net fortune. At this time, the house may need to go on sale, but the patient doesn't need to loan money in order to pay any treatments or survive.
* If cured, the patient usually survives without serious debt and can continue the career. |
