I'm not American but I did live there for a few years. I believe it's covered under the private health care, i.e. you pay a monthly insurance sum to your provider (like say taking out a BUPA plan over here) but it covers you for all sorts from prescriptions to broken bones, heart surgery and so forth, you can take out a policy that just covers say prescriptions and GP visits or a policy that covers absolutley everything. Normally things like optical and dental cover are again another extra you can add on. Usually if you work full time you will get some health benefits from your employer and in turn you can accept those or upgrade as you see fit depending on needs etc. With regards having a baby, if you are on a full insurance scheme when you fall pregnant your covered, if not you have to take out a policy to cover that seperatley, I think Medicate do a pregnancy policy and there is another one, a somthing card that is specifically for pregnancy. Medicate is more your poor person's option if you know what I mean, pay as you go type thing....works out more expensive in the long run but means you don't have to pay monthly for a service you might not use for say 2 years or something. It's very different out there but I loved it, you really did get what you paid for and it stopped things like waiting lists and hypocondriacts booking up weeks worth of GP appointments "just incase" type thing. I do wish they would scrap National Insurance contributions here and go onto the same private care system they have in the states, it's far superior in my opinion.
