Inside the bowels of UK's National Health System

[HipChick]

My Aunt had a stem cell transplant, and had gone into remission. But a few months ago, we learnt that her aggressive cancer had now spread, her last scans showed lesions on the brain, and she was having problems swallowing due to growths in her throat. She had restarted her treatments, but had recently picked up a chest infection, which developed into pneumonia, which got her admitted back into the hospital. I visited her at the weekend and she was laughing and joking in her hospital bed, and just looking very strong. After that, she started deteriorating, and within the next 72hrs, she gave up her fight,surrounded by family and friends, we all held hands around her bed, and she went to be with her only son, whom she had buried only 18 months earlier,due to a brain tumor.
After she passed, I wanted to grab a some fresh air,since we'd held vigil all night in her hospital room, and I made the classic mistake of not looking in the right direction when crossing,since UK drive on the other side of the road, and ended up being a hood ornament. A lot of pain, bruised and battered but fortunately no bones broken. I filled out a form, but no-one interrogated me about insurance coverage,what it covered and what it might not cover. I did not wait long before someone treated me either..
Currently, back in the US I am in between jobs, and have to wait for 90 days for my new health insurance kicks in, during that time, I had already made a mental note of not to get sick. And now it is a reality...
My Aunt is no longer in pain, she worked hard all her life,she paid into a system,which supported her when she needed it - what is so wrong with that?..

[Freddie]

1. My British cousin

thinks we Yanks are backwards and nuts about 2 things, health care and guns. He said if you want to really frighten the British, just mention that you want an "American-style health care system". That term is used as an example of what's wrong with our country.

[HipChick]

2. yeah...the gun discussion came up,with the recent 2 mass shootings...

"Only In America"...they think Yanks are nuts, along with not having security on credit cards, chip and pin..backwards,yes

[geckosfeet]

3. Nothing is wrong with that.

It's a good way to do things. And it's the way we should provide health care.

But there are always the people who don't want to pay until they get sick. They have all kinds of ways of rationalizing their behavior. But to make a NHS work you need the whole population to contribute. With roughly five time the population of the UK, the US could have a pretty good version of the NHS.

One problem that the US faces is geography, and how to make sure that services are available in very remote rural areas.

[Riverman100]

4. I too saw it in action

In 1976 while on a foreign studies program in Manchester (from Penn State) I lost a filling from a tooth. I located a dentist and went to his office dreading what this fix would do to my tiny student budget. When he was done I discovered that there was nothing out of pocket for me to pay! Oh, and by the way there was no "long wait". I was a walk in. The lies about universal health care never cease to amaze me.

ps. I too almost became a hood ornament but for me it was a bus. Maybe thats why it caught my eye just in time.

[vlyons]

5. It's not for no reason that the Brits made a big to-do

about their national health care at this year's London olympics. They love their system. Wish we had such a system.

[malaise]

6. Glad you're OK

Every country on the planet should have NHS

[California Expat]

7. Health care in Sweden

About 6 months ago, I moved to Southern Sweden. I have migrated here on what is called "personal connection grounds." I have since married my "personal connection" and have a residency permit to be reviewed in 2 years and converted to a permanent residency permit, followed by citizenship after 3 years of marriage.

I am 59 years old and arrived with some typical age related diseases: prostate, arthritis, high cholesterol and constant attention needing to be paid to sun related skin cancer lesions.

The biggest issue I had with integrating into the Swedish system was the fact that some of my prescription drugs from the US were not available here, most notably Flomax. We have found suitable substitutes except for the Flomax. (I have since found out there is a much cheaper drug, even in the US, that doesn't pass the cost of advertising along with it.) I think the biggest adjustment has been calling my Doctor by his first name. They aren't big on titles here.

I will not pay more than 150 Swedish Krona for a regular doctor's visit, 300 for a specialist. I will not pay more than 1100 krona for any 12 month period. There are 7 krona to a dollar, so my annual medical cost is about $165. Prescription drugs are roughly twice that, with a 10% discount kicking in at 1000 krona, 20% at 1100, 30% at 1200, etc. I will not pay more than 2200 krona for prescription drugs in any year.

This is a nation of 9 million people, with a very liberal attitude towards the acceptance of immigrants, both "personal connections" and refugees from war torn areas of the world.

GDP spent on healthcare is 9.4% as opposed to 15.2% in the US (WHO 2008). My conservative friends in the US try to tell me that this type of system cannot happen in the US because the population is too large.

I think they have been fed that line by the right wing media.

[AllyCat]

10. These are the real stories I hear from REAL people.

The lies spouted by the American politicians (especially the right-wingers) are just awful. But they won't support a national healthcare system until they can figure out how to make themselves rich off that system. And the beat goes on here with multiple threats to remove even the small gains we have made.

[valerief]

8. She prevented a few rich people from getting richer is what's wrong with it.

Making rich people richer is THE most important thing in the world.

[barbtries]

9. there's nothing wrong with that.

my condolences on your losses
what's wrong is on this side of the pond.

[skydive forever]

11. dirty socialist

[ikri]

12. My experience

I'm in the UK & honestly wouldn't know what to do without access to the NHS.

I've had a minor ear problem for the last few days, nothing major but my mother had an ear infection years ago that left her nearly deaf in one ear so after hoping that it would go away by itself I decided to go and see a doctor today.

There's a walk-in clinic a couple of minutes away from my home that's open for non-emergencies when your normal GP surgery isn't open (like on a Sunday afternoon). After filling in a short questionnaire asking for my details and the nature of my problem I was left to wait to see a doctor. The surgery was unusually busy for a Sunday so I wasn't seen for about 20 minutes. After a short examination and a few questions on my medical history the doctor diagnosed an ear infection and prescribed a short course of penicillin. I drove the short distance to the nearest pharmacy and picked up my prescription after a few minutes.

Total cost to me - £7.65 (about $12) + fuel.
Total time - under an hour.

If I'd had to rely on insurance I probably wouldn't have visited the doctor at all if there was a chance that it would either cost me money up front or increase the cost of my insurance at renewal time, instead I'd have waiting until the problem went away on its own or waited until the problem was so acute that it could not be avoided (and potentially damaged the hearing in one ear as happened to my mother).

[HipChick]

13. ..deciding if I have finances to take care of my medical problems

shouldn't be my solution to healthcare...I have nearly bled to death because of it...in the end, I decided to get to the ER...my bill was $4,500..

[ikri]

14. Sick-care

I think that Morgan Spurlock said it in Super-size me, the USA doesn't have a health care system, it has a sick-care system.

When you factor in out-of-pocket costs like visiting a doctor's surgery and worries about rising insurance costs if you do visit, then you end up with a system where people avoid visiting their doctors if their symptoms aren't acute or life-threatening which means that something easily treatable at early stages gets ignored until it becomes a major problem with major costs attached.

[Ron Obvious]

15. And the NHS is underfunded

As someone who's experienced similar situations on both sides of the pond, I share your point of view and never tire of telling people about it here in the US. For some reason, it's fantastically difficult to eradicate the myths about "socialised care" in the US, though. You have moaners everywhere, so the odd anecdote isn't difficult to find, but virtually nobody from a country with a public health system wants the US system.

The NHS is actually woefully underfunded ever since Thatcher. I think per person spending on healthcare in Britain is among the lowest in the civilised world. Think of how good it could be with better funding!