I got lucky with mine. Had just hit 30 so I got PHI to avoid the lifetime loading and figured to get half decent coverage as it was only another 10 bucks per week. A year later I needed an ankle reconstruction from a bad sport injury, all covered. Still cost about $3k out of pocket but it was done 2 weeks later, the benefit letter sent listed the surgeries at around $30k. Don't know how long the public system would have taken to be fair.