Britain's National Health Service: Simple, sensible and civilized

[marmar]

from the Los Angeles Times:



Britain's National Health Service: Simple, sensible and civilized
A former NHS patient has some advice for Americans skeptical of single-payer, government-run healthcare: You'll get over it.

By Clancy Sigal
July 5, 2009


For the first couple of years I lived in Britain, I was an illegal immigrant from the United States, visaless with an expired passport and looking over my shoulder all the time. Even so, from the very first day I arrived at Victoria Station in London, suffering from bronchitis, I was accepted in the NHS -- the national health scheme, we called it -- no questions asked and no ID required.

After I'd become a legal resident, I asked my doctor why he had taken me, almost literally off the boat, with so little fuss. Weren't foreigners a drain on his time and the National Health Service? He shrugged. "If you come here with a contagious disease, we don't want you infecting the rest of us. So of course we give you medical care. Purely selfish on our part."

For three decades I used and, being of a hypochondriacal nature, exploited the British medical system without paying a farthing except for the taxes taken out of my wages as a working journalist. And that single-payer, socialistic, government-run, bureaucratized, heavily used, nationalized health system served me -- and 50 million others -- very well. In need, I saw many doctors, with no money ever changing hands. There was nothing to sign, hardly any papers to shuffle. My primary-care physician ran his "surgery," his office, with the help of only one receptionist whose job it was to arrange appointments.

My doctor's waiting room in his storefront office was by American standards shockingly casual, even a trifle seedy. In what was then a rigid class society, the waiting room was also a lesson in democracy where duchesses and dustmen, old and young, rich and poor, waited their turn. It wasn't perfect. There was the occasional misdiagnosis, crowded hospital ward, sleepy student nurse. But it worked. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-oe-sigal5-2009jul05,0,6570986.story

[sandnsea]

1. Well this isn't what is being suggested

Nor are the three choices in the intentionally distracting poll on the page. The "liberal" LA Times strikes again.

[pkdu]

2. This much-maligned ( at least over here) system extended the lives of

both my maternal and paternal grandparents way beyond what their bank accounts or the tough lives they lived would have gotten them here. Easily 15-20 years each I would estimate. They all had very hard lives and in some cases didn't have healthy lifestyles (read- smoking/eating)...but once they reached retirement age , with no private pension , the state gave them back some of what they had paid through weekly taxes on wages in the form of a small pension , subsidized housing and free medical care.

Were they always seen instantly? No...but they got very good care and didn't have to worry one bit about insurance or co-pays or any of that shit....they had enough to worry about.

Socialized medicine ?..if you say so...I say bring it on.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Here's another view of the NHS from Readers' Responses in the NY Times

. . .Another major difference between the US and UK system is that in the UK. they have an excellent health education and prevention system. The UK employs Health Visitors whose primary task is to educate and monitor the well being of the nation’s subjects. E.G. When an infant is discharged with its mother from hospital, the H.V's responsibility is to check that infant throughout its developmental life stages. If at any time, that infant does fails to match developmental markers, a referral to a specialist is arranged. If a baby is not responding to sound, it is referred to an otolaryngologist for follow up tests and if proved to be Deaf, then, the peripatetic teacher of the Deaf is recruited to work with the child and its parents. Specialist social workers with Deaf people are also brought in to play to carry out an assessment of need for various aids and adaptations that that child and its parent might benefit from. The Health visitor is also charged with visiting the elderly at determined points of their lives and again, an assessment of need is carried out to enable them to maintain a healthy, safe living environment within the community for as long as they are able. Support teams are also called in to assist with varying needs of that elderly person. This could include assessment of Social Security benefits, disabled living allowances, environmental equipment for the home and these assessments are carried out by Social Workers and Occupational Therapists. If a person is released from a mental institution or psychiatric ward, this is only done after a full case discussion and community nursing and social work support has be set in place to ensure a successful rehabilitation back into the community.

Granted, it is accepted that there are waiting lists for procedures. However, these are usually there for folk requiring “Elective” procedures. Generally, all emergency and critical care needs are addresses immediately. Do we Americans enjoy this level of care? I think not. Isn't America a rather backward third world country, seems like it to me?. . .
---------------------
This is a long comment and can be found in its entirety as Comment #34 at

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/business/economy/08leonhardt.html?sort=recommended

[spin]

4. K&R (n/t)

[RadicalTexan]

5. I lived in the UK for four years and used the NHS

Never had a problem. Had a biopsy, as well as Xrays. Got free birth control. Never had to wait more than a couple of days for a non-essential appointment, same as here. Never had to wait more than 15 minutes in the waiting room (NOT like here). Efficient. Caring doctors and nurses. No over-reliance on prescription drugs as first solution. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

$0.02

[Hissyspit]

6. How to do it:

"Recently, the American Medical Assn. responded with skepticism to President Obama's plea for healthcare reform. In Britain, too, the massed ranks of the medical profession at first fought bitterly against a "socialized" service covering all from cradle to the grave. But Labor's health minister, a firebrand from the mining valleys, Aneurin Bevan, brought them into line with a mixture of enticements and threats.

The NHS was, and is, a classically English compromise, in which individual doctors are independent contractors paid by the government according to the number of their patients. Doctors are free to remove patients from their list, and patients are free to go elsewhere. Once ideology was laid aside and the system got working, it was actually quite simple."

[glitch]

7. "Once ideology was laid aside and the system got working, it was actually quite simple." K & R nt

[mr blur]

8. The NHS saved my life and continues to do so.

I have MS and take 8 prescription drugs a day. Doesn't cost me a penny. All visits to the home from OTs, physios etc. cost me nothing. All equipment provided in my home - hoist, motorised wheelchair, shower chair, ramps, rails, bathroom equipment cost me nothing.

When I was working, I made my contributions via tax - now I get the benefits.

Yes, I'm a Socialist - always been proud to call myself one.

[marions ghost]

9. we can only dream....

America is too backward to invest in the health of it's people.

[L0oniX]

10. K & R

[Hissyspit]

11. my former British girlfriend use to complain about getting her NHS appointments

until I explained that in the U.S. not everyone is covered, you might wait even LONGER, you might not be able to get a referral at all, you might end up in the ER, you might have to pay for ALL of it and it could ruin you financially and cause you to lose your home, or you might not get the health care at all because it was that or eat.

She was horrified at our system.

She continued to complain about going to the doctor under the British system, because that is human nature, but she was truly HORRIFIED at our system.

[Kingofalldems]

12. Yeah, but we have Health Savings Accounts, courtesy of Newty

[me b zola]

13. K&R