The NHS

[merciful-evans]

You really should get one of these, m-e (and for goodness' sakes do it before article 50 is triggered), and it's free into the bargain;

 

http://www.nhs.uk/NH...t-the-ehic.aspx

 

In fact everyone here in the UK reading this and who travel to continental Europe should apply for one.

It only covers healthcare in Europe, obviously, but having it is much better than the alternative.

 

Pip.

 

I do have one Pip, but thanks for reminding me to renew!

 

As it was, I got sick in the USA in 1977. I had medical insurance but it did no good; they wanted money up front and I was living on a shoestring.

[Digger]

In Australia I think you need to be earning around US $300k (after all deductions) to see 40% of it go to tax. Probably similar to UK system. Medicare is an additional 1-2% tax dependent on income and provides for no/low cost healthcare to all.

 

 

Can't help you as I'm a "Tax free zone"...grin~

[Digger]

In respect to health care, I was hospitalised 6 times mid last year and eventually had my gall bladder removed and subsequently a recalcitrant gall stone. Along the way I had dozens of expensive tests, a number included MRI's and Cat scans, Ultrasounds and lots of X-Rays. On and off I spent weeks in hospital. I was ambulanced to hospital on one occasion. In fact I had my knee X-Rayed last week and am going for an MRI next week. All free!

 

We have a world class medical system in Australia.

 

In honesty I did go private in the last instance to get the gall stone removed as local surgeons seemed muddled about the diagnosis. I do live on a rural area with a small population though.

 

In the final instance I took it out of their hands and went to Melbourne to the best available and it was resolved in less than half a day. I'm lucky to have a DVA gold card that entitles me to the best healthcare if I need it. There are delays sometimes for common procedures on the public system.

 

By and large our local hospital was fantastic and the staff excellent.

[milod]

I'll try not to be political on this, but I realize it may seem to be that way to some.

 

First, I think that in a sense the U.S. might have been better off if, in the late 1940s after "the war," it had either gone to some basic form of national health service OR made some sort of law either to outlaw medical insurances or to force a given definition.

 

In the U.S., it's all talk about "health insurance," whether government demanded or anything else. But it's not "insurance" at all, it became a mode of a payment pool for medical care, largely for those with relatively large employers. But when I paid for decades with no medical needs, and a co-worker spent more on meds monthly than our two "health insurance" paycheck deductions plus someone else's, I figured "insurance" was not at all involved. At least not involved in the sense of auto insurance that doesn't pay for maintenance, but only accident or whatever.

 

Second, I think that even in the U.K., one is likely to encounter what I see across the U.S. - differences in perceived quality of care based on location and/or a specific administration and the "local culture."

 

Also totally aside from the above, there's a degree of what one person may find as "caring" and another may not.

 

From personal experience with friends as well as watching as a journalist, I have a mixed bag of opinion on the two U.S. major "federal health care" systems, the Indian Health Service and the Veterans Administration.

 

The IHS four decades ago seemed to offer as good or better care to "natives" than "non-natives" got six blocks away in a community hospital. Today they may not meet standards for veterinary care.

 

The VA here is almost never criticized by my veteran friends who have received care at the hospital down the road. Yet in other areas of the U.S. it's horrid.

 

The IHS problem, it seems, is they can't get qualified staff for our region's IHS hospitals that are in exceptionally isolated areas with assorted social problems added to the mix. Nobody wants to go there.

 

The VA, on the other hand, draws excellent staff here from among those who want to live in "cowboy country" rather than in urban environments that don't reflect their personal cultural outlooks.

 

Now add to that the paperwork overhead required nowadays in the U.S. of all "providers," public or private, and the almost-required technology and its overuse to cover the paperwork and make a given "health care organization" look good -- again, either public or private.

 

In short, big bureaucracies, public or private, tend to be better at improving their status and revenues than at delivering service to "customers" or even tending to their own lower to mid-level "employees."

 

The medical professionals who manage to duck the bureaucracy, one way or another, such as moving to the American "outback" or whatever, seem to offer care that makes customer/patients happier, although they may feel more stressed by the bureaucrats on various numbers games.

 

I could make a case for, or against federal medicine or some sort of real opposite concept, but the bottom line to me is the numbers game and the best care is in organizational subcultures that may be regional or some other factor that encourages pride on one's work. So we're back, like it or not, to looking at factors for or against bureaucratized anything, public or private.

 

m

[jdgm]

Our NHS is one reason people want to come and live in the UK. I have paid NHS contributions all my working life and from still-ongoing experience I can say it's well worth the money.

I have chronic glaucoma and get free eye tests and checkups, plus free prescriptions now I am over 60. I get sent kits to check for bowel/colon cancer too.

The British press always likes to say there is a crisis in the NHS; they have done this for years.

But the many individual successes and lives saved every day, week and month don't make news.

It is an incredibly important part of our society - part of the glue - and everyone in the UK is much better off with it.

 

This is not meant in any way to be a political observation, but the experienced opinion of a now-62-year old citizen of the UK who grew up with the NHS being there when I needed it.

 

It still is.

[IanHenry]

Our NHS is one reason people want to come and live in the UK. I have paid NHS contributions all my working life and from still-ongoing experience I can say it's well worth the money.

I have chronic glaucoma and get free eye tests and checkups, plus free prescriptions now I am over 60. I get sent kits to check for bowel/colon cancer too.

The British press always likes to say there is a crisis in the NHS; they have done this for years.

But the many individual successes and lives saved every day, week and month don't make news.

It is an incredibly important part of our society - part of the glue - and everyone in the UK is much better off with it.

 

This is not meant in any way to be a political observation, but the experienced opinion of a now-62-year old citizen of the UK who grew up with the NHS being there when I needed it.

 

It still is.

 

 

 

Ian

[Versatile]

Good to hear anecdotal positives about the NHS......

 

IMO an example to the world of 'taxpayers' money well spent' easy to take for granted

 

As mentioned, this makes the UK very attractive as a destination for immigrants from less fortunate countries....:blink:

 

A huge challenge for MP's....bearing in mind recent economic/banking crises....to make enough money available to keep said institution running fairly and smoothly....

 

There are current finance/manpower issues concerning over-stretched local GP's being unable to offer appointments at short notice....

 

Resulting in 'some' folks going instead to A&E departments in hospitals....transferring pressure to already busy facilities(particularly in the winter months)

 

Providing plenty of 'fodder' to the trash media to hype and get negative about the NHS in general.....

 

V

 

[milod]

Reading comments from folks in the U.K., Canada and Australia tends to reinforce my opinions of the general state of medicine in the four major native anglophone nations, U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia.

 

I'm increasingly convinced that regardless of nation, federal (just a second, I'll get to private) health care programs tend to vary in quality depending on specific area and area subculture, whether it's an area in London or in an isolated continental area like the U.S. Northern Plains. Priorities for different areas may or may not be seen as optimal by those beneficiaries of the programs.

 

In the U.S., the average middle class citizen with more-or-less average health care "insurance" can receive marvelous health care or substandard health care and price tag frankly is not the determining factor as much as the caregiving institution's local subculture. The biggest pain is working with the bureaucracy on items ranging from how something is billed to whether test results are most efficiently channeled to the primary physician.

 

In my own area, the two federal health care entities are an exceptionally good example of military veterans' care and what should be considered a national shame of the Indian Health Service.

 

Regardless, a major concern isn't paying the bills as much as getting someone to care they need, especially in acute situations.

 

I'm super-lucky along with my neighbors in being a 15-minute ambulance drive for most acute care needs that may arise in decent weather. But 20 miles northeast, in that same good weather, for the same need, we could be talking a need for a helicopter to fly in from 60 miles away.

 

In winter, we could be talking about two hours for the good weather 15-minute trip. And that's after an hour of an ambulance getting to a home in town, then battling storm conditions to the excellent rural area hospital 15 miles away.

 

Getting specialist care varies, but for "me," it's at worst a drive of an hour and a half in good weather. For some isolated ranch communities you're talking a day's drive and overnight stay in a motel, appointment the next day and either a night's drive home or another overnight stay and drive home.

 

Given that a Canadian friend died awaiting a critical operation, could afford immediate treatment in the U.S. but refused due to his feeling it would be unpatriotic, plus observation of the IHS and tales of U.S. Veterans health care services in other regions of the nation, I have quite mixed emotions on government health care.

 

To me, though, it appears plain and simple that where one lives in relation to health care providers, one's own subculture and that of the "providers," along with physical access to any care at all, seem to be determining factors of quality more than how it's paid for.

 

To be blunt, in my part of the U.S. the key is getting professionals who want to live in this region. They care. Those here who are building a resume for a "better" location, regardless of qualifications, tend not to offer as quality care. Some areas are simply of an area and subculture where it's incredibly difficult, if not nearly impossible, to find professionals willing to locate there whether in a public or private institution and regardless of their potential income. Those areas are hurting, and tend to be public (government) institutions.

 

For what it's worth, I feel I receive as good or better medical care for myself and my wife compared to anywhere in the world - and IMHO largely because the system quickly weeds out those who don't want to be in cowboy country, and those here could easily make more elsewhere, but aren't even that tempted.

 

m

[Drog]

Thanful for the Canadian health care system. Is it perfect? No, but it works well and keeps piece of mind.

[fretplay]

I'm very glad to hear you are well and fully recovered Frans. The NHS does a fantastic job and the people who work there are fantastic too.

 

Three years ago my son called me to come home( I was with my luthier at the time. Guitar content!!) When I arrived there was an ambulance and a paramedic car parked outside the house. My wife had been taken ill and when I saw her I thought she was dead. The team looked after her,she got the appropriate treatment, they could not have done better. It took time but she is fine now. Thank you NHS.