US vs UK Healthcare

[ImmemorialN 7]

Wow, got to love the hijacking of this thread!

The UK has a better health care system, or at least a fairer health care system, period.

This is all I have to add.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

My husband has surgery last week. We have 80/20 insurance and a $400 deductible. With JUST the xrays and MRI we're $600 in the hole. We haven't got the bills from the surgery yet.

if we were in Australia it would be a vastly different story.

[Boiler 45,525]

US has no health care system, so to try and compare the two is very difficult.

My personal experience in the UK has been less than positive.

Your experience was abnormal

Of the 143 trusts that have large A&E units, only 18 have hit the target of treating 95% of patients within four hours, with the goal being missed by a widening margin in recent months.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/18/emergency-departments-performance-nhs-helpline

I think I would vote for the NHS between the two, but it is a choice between bad and awful.

[BaBamSam 239]

Wow, got to love the hijacking of this thread!

The UK has a better health care system, or at least a fairer health care system, period.

This is all I have to add.

I don't think that's true. Would I choose the UK system over the US system? Yes, but it's not better or fairer in every way.

In the UK, you can wait for a very very long time before you see a doctor only to get referred to a different type of doctor. It can be very time consuming. In the US, it is often much faster and you don't wait nearly as long.

The main point where the UK wins me over is just that when you get sick in the UK, you don't have to stress about how you'll afford being sick. You don't have to debate in your head whether or not it's "bad enough yet" to pay through the nose. I didn't realize what a burden it was to have to worry about that until I didn't have to. For me, and I think for many people, that is what makes the NHS so appealing. But the NHS is very far from perfect

[Protocol417 161]

So basically, if you want a public heathcare option in the polical spotlight, you need the kardashians or honey boo boo to endorce it.

This is one of the most depressing things I've ever read that didn't involve genocide or puppies.

[Protocol417 161]

I'm not looking down on them. I just booked my first trip out of North America and I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't so important to my wife. As you said it's hard for americans to travel like Europeans can since the tickets are so expensive. It doesn't change the fact that never leaving the states can cause a narrow, perhaps fearful view of the world.

That's another weird thing - it's MUCH cheaper for my fiance to buy a round-trip ticket to the States than it is for me to buy one to go there... sometimes by as much as $200 or $300!!!

A friend of his married a woman from Brazil, and I got to meet her when I was in the UK last. We had a lovely bonding moment over the fact that we're both with silly northern English men Anyways, she said the same thing, that it was much cheaper for her husband to fly to Brazil than the other way around.

Wonder why that is?

[Protocol417 161]

US has no health care system, so to try and compare the two is very difficult.

My personal experience in the UK has been less than positive.

Your experience was abnormal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/18/emergency-departments-performance-nhs-helpline

I think I would vote for the NHS between the two, but it is a choice between bad and awful.

One thing, I did find it very odd that I had to go to A&E first. I knew it wasn't an emergency; I could've gone straight to Urgent Care.

The statistic you quoted is an interesting one which unfortunately doesn't tell us much. 18 hit the goal of having 95% of their patients treated within 4 hours. What does "treated" mean in this case? If I need my appendix removed, for example, would I have to have my surgery completed within 4 hours in order to fit into that goal? Or would I just need to have been diagnosed? 95% seems a high number (honestly, it would surprise me if many American emergency rooms hit that goal)... so what was the average percentage hospitals were getting? I wish the Guardian had elaborated on that.

[Glyn and Kathy 288]

You only need to read the UK newspapers or watch the nightly news to know how bad some of the healthcare is in this country. We've been very lucky...but FIL was not. No one put him back on his heart monitor in Oct 2011 when he left the ward to go get some tests run. When he came back...he had missed his supper because he had waited 4 hours for his tests to be done, someone rushed to find him a sandwich but neglected to put his monitor on. He had a heart attack just days earlier and was waiting for surgery the following day. He had another heart attack during the night but no one knew because his monitor wasn't on...even though he was on the cardiac ward.Blame it on a lack of nurses or staff that just couldn't be bothered, but we lost a dear sweet man that night. That is just ONE example...just google STAFFORD hospital scandal in the UK and you will see what some people have dealt with here.

Like I said, we've been lucky and I FAR prefer knowing that I can go to the doctors and it won't cost a fortune...but its not perfect. I don't think there IS a perfect solution for healthcare. I do know it should NOT be profit driven though...peoples lives are more important than money.

[Boiler 45,525]

My Father has now passed away, but last time I took him to A and E it was more than 4 hours waiting for him to be seen.

You can read more about the number of Ambulances wasted because they are parked at Hospitals waiting to offload patients.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I don't think that's true. Would I choose the UK system over the US system? Yes, but it's not better or fairer in every way.

In the UK, you can wait for a very very long time before you see a doctor only to get referred to a different type of doctor. It can be very time consuming. In the US, it is often much faster and you don't wait nearly as long.

The main point where the UK wins me over is just that when you get sick in the UK, you don't have to stress about how you'll afford being sick. You don't have to debate in your head whether or not it's "bad enough yet" to pay through the nose. I didn't realize what a burden it was to have to worry about that until I didn't have to. For me, and I think for many people, that is what makes the NHS so appealing. But the NHS is very far from perfect

The US health care system is very far from perfect, too. At the end of the day, the NHS delivers healthcare outcomes no worse than the US and it does that at less than half the per capita cost. In other words, we are spending a fortune for, well, nothing.

[BaBamSam 239]

The US health care system is very far from perfect, too. At the end of the day, the NHS delivers healthcare outcomes no worse than the US and it does that at less than half the per capita cost. In other words, we are spending a fortune for, well, nothing.

Obviously the US system is far from perfect - and I did state multiple times that I think the NHS is preferable - but it's important not to raise either imperfect system up on a pedestal.

[james&olya 1,121]

You only need to read the UK newspapers or watch the nightly news to know how bad some of the healthcare is in this country. We've been very lucky...but FIL was not. No one put him back on his heart monitor in Oct 2011 when he left the ward to go get some tests run. When he came back...he had missed his supper because he had waited 4 hours for his tests to be done, someone rushed to find him a sandwich but neglected to put his monitor on. He had a heart attack just days earlier and was waiting for surgery the following day. He had another heart attack during the night but no one knew because his monitor wasn't on...even though he was on the cardiac ward.Blame it on a lack of nurses or staff that just couldn't be bothered, but we lost a dear sweet man that night. That is just ONE example...just google STAFFORD hospital scandal in the UK and you will see what some people have dealt with here.

Like I said, we've been lucky and I FAR prefer knowing that I can go to the doctors and it won't cost a fortune...but its not perfect. I don't think there IS a perfect solution for healthcare. I do know it should NOT be profit driven though...peoples lives are more important than money.

You think horror stories like that and even worse don't happen in the USA?

[james&olya 1,121]

The US health care system is very far from perfect, too. At the end of the day, the NHS delivers healthcare outcomes no worse than the US and it does that at less than half the per capita cost. In other words, we are spending a fortune for, well, nothing.

Nah, we spend it for a very specific and intentional purpose. To make obscenely wealthy those who have managed to figure out how to 'entrepreneurially' game the system! Especially big Pharma!

[Novembro 1,763]

I have nothing intelligent to add, except to thank you for your contribution and hope you don't get scared off by the right-wing nuts who are bound to descend upon this thread and accuse you of having communist sympathies or of being a sockpuppet of one of the "caba girls".

hahahahahahahaha beautiful.

I'm in the same boat. My husband wanted to move here because of the low cost of everything. I would have rather immigrated to England and lived with his parents for awhile while getting on our feet. The benefits of the UK v the US seem better to me, but I guess we're stuck here, as we bought a house.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Sorry... I'm kind of new here, so I don't know if this is the right place for this sort of thing, but I'm trying to dive into this community and all that. It's a personal story, but it's political, as well.

Also sorry for the length. I never met a word that couldn't be made better by pairing it with about seven more

I recently returned from a trip to the UK to visit my fiance, during which we spent a few days in London visiting friends of mine. While there, an odd thing happened: I had a panic attack on the Tube. I'd always been a nervous flyer, but hadn't ever had issues on normal public transportation, and never in my life had a full-on panic attack. It just came out of nowhere, and I had no idea how to deal with it.

Despite every instinct in my body telling me otherwise, we went to the hospital.

I sat in the waiting room at A&E (emergency room) thinking of all the horrible things I'd heard about the NHS... wait times, rudeness, and so forth. But I have to say, it was the best experience I have ever had in a hospital. I was checked out within 10 minutes (keep in mind, this is in the middle of London, walking distance from the Houses of Parliament), and the nurse took great care to help me and keep me calm (I was still panicky and having difficulty controlling my breathing). I was transferred to Urgent Care (as I expected) and yes, I had to wait an hour there, but this was no issue to me as I was more than happy to let the people with broken limbs and in pain go ahead of me. The doctor was the most patient, caring doctor I've ever seen. I am so used to being rushed by doctors back in the US, who are just interested in the physical symptoms without any care to hear the details leading up to the issue at hand, but this doctor stopped me, made me go back, and asked me very detailed, very good questions. Knowing I was new to the NHS system, she took the time to explain it to me and tell me where I could go if I had another attack during my trip, or just had questions or felt the need to talk to someone. Doctors in the US I've seen, by contrast, will barely give you the time of day because it would cost them five seconds. (As a result I've developed a deep opposition to going to the clinic or hospital, even when I probably really should.)

The doctor at St. Thomas assured me that I wouldn't have to pay for my visit, and then apologetically informed me that the prescription she was writing for me would cost £7.85, as if she expected me to blow up over such a small cost! She then apologized for the "long wait" (as I looked at her incredulously). I got the same apology at the pharmacy. While in the waiting room at Urgent Care, so many people were complaining to the receptionist and passing doctors about the wait, but to be honest with you, I've experience similar waits at the emergency room at home (and I had blood gushing out of my nose), with nowhere near the level of service and care I got at St. Thomas (and of course at much greater cost... and yes, I do have insurance). I'm still a bit blown away by the whole thing.

I've heard lots of people say "well, they have such high taxes, that's how they pay for it!" but when my fiance and I actually sat down and compared our tax burden (hey, we've been Skyping for over two years, you run out of stuff to talk about eventually), we found out that it was about the same. The real difference in is sales tax/VAT: My sales tax is 10%, his VAT is 20%. But I have to pay for insurance, which costs me about $160 per month (and my employer much more than that). So I would have to spend about $1,600 on taxable items (twice the amount of my disposable income) for the difference between my sales tax and his VAT to be more than what I pay in insurance each month. In other words, if you add my health insurance in... I pay more than he does. And I get less. Unlike what most Brits seem to think, insurance does not pay for everything. Just walking in the door costs me $50. I get a little chuckle every time I tell a Brit friend of mine about how a colonoscopy cost me $500 (they either assume I don't have insurance or just sit there looking shocked). The real problem is back then, I could afford that... now, I couldn't. As a result, I pay $160 per month for something I can't afford to use but can't afford to be without. This isn't something the British have to worry about.

While it wasn't much fun spending a couple hours of my vacation in hospital, I walked away kind of glad for the experience. I really wish we could have something like the NHS in the States. When my fiance and I got engaged, we decided that we were going to live in the US. He loves Chicago, and work and my community came into the decision as well. But I'm starting to wonder if I should've considered living in England a bit more. In all likelihood, we will probably end up moving there eventually, once he's had his fill of living here. Healthcare is definitely one reason we'd go back.

You are obviously a commie sympathizer of a sock puppet for one of the cabba girls.