I Was Treated to a Foreign First World Public Health Care System
Last Friday I learned what it was like to be part of a civilized, first world health system.
I was in England, staying at my godmother's house, when I got slammed by one of my chronic migraines. When I get migraines I usually resign myself to a dark room, take my medication and wait for the nauseating pain and blurry vision in my left eye to dissipate.
As I rummaged around my suitcase to find my salvation, high doses of Trexamet and Naprosyn, I discovered that I had forgot to pack them in my rush to the airport. Not having my medication doesn't mean enduring one bad headache. It means enduring about three days of completely crippling head pain. Instead of panicking over my fate, I picked up the phone and called my doctor in NY. I thought she'd be able to call in a prescription. No dice. She actually didn't even call me back. Plus, as my godmother reminded me, she wouldn't be able to call in a prescription because she's not part of the British health system.
So I resigned myself back to my dark room, put a cloth over my head and tried to do what my mother always tells me: "go to another place." Well, my godmother came upstairs shortly afterward and suggested that she could take me to that other place... a National Health office.
Since I thought getting an appointment there would require a referral, at least a day's wait and an exorbitant amount of money, I told her not to bother. She called anyways, got me an appointment for the next hour and we were off to the neighborhood clinic.
It was amazing. I filled out paperwork with my New York address, waited five minutes, met with the doctor, got a prescription, walked downstairs to the pharmacy under the clinic and was back at my godmother's house an hour later. Believe it or not, I didn't have to pay a cent for the visit. I did, however, pay a "private" prescription price for the medication that added up to about $30 dollars.
I'm not denying that there are problems with the British system. My problem wasn't life threatening, but it was temporarily crippling. For people with deadly diseases like cancer there are documented frustrations over access to certain treatment. My great-uncle actually got sent home from a British hospital because there weren't enough beds that day. He was scheduled for open heart surgery... an operation he endured the following week.
There will always be problems in a system that takes care of millions, but that shouldn't preclude us from not giving millions their rights to proper health care. What Obama said about energy applies to health care: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." From my experience the British system was good. It was also good to my great-uncle. Even though he was sent home, he was treated. His immediate family didn't have to haggle with insurers or cut costs. His country took care of him. America should be able to do the same.
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NHS was even better before Maggie Tatcher (cheney with a skirt) almost destroyed it by defunding it as if it were the research and dev dept of a corporation. You cannot defund it, remember my words.
AMericans beware: if you have a national health care you have to commit to it, finance it for real, appreciate it, you can't have the next George Bush dismantle it.
The USA has the tragic tendency to redo everything anew when the right takes over. That would destroy public health care the same way Bush and co destroyed the economy, NASA, scientific research, foreign policy, disarmament. education, environment, pensions, parks, New Orleans, and the English language.
I am afraid Singe payer will never happen in the USA because Americans apparently haven't suffered enough it seems. Never seen a demonstration against United Health have you? I wonder what hurt does it take that is more than seeing yourself and you family literally die for lack of money to have good care.
I am just astonished at the Americans, really!
I'm American, and have lived in several different parts of this country all my life. And I too am astonished. People will protest against Obama (the tea parties), 90 days into his term, because they've been ginned up by right wing TV and radio hacks into thinking that he is responsible for all their economic woes. But watching their own parents, children, spouses, themselves, get sicker by the day due to lack of affordable preventive care, and they say nothing.
I think many Americans have the mentality of an abused spouse. They are capable of getting upset and angry about all manner of phantoms (they'll even beat the kids and kick the dog), so long as they stay clear of the real menace in their lives. And in America today the real menace is corporate control of our lives, from top to bottom. Health insurance corporations are killing us and our families, but like the woman who defends her abusive husband when the police show up, so too many Americans (especially on the right) will repeat the mantra that all is well and that we do, after all, have the best of everything here. At some point, this cannot continue.
America without health care for all, regardless of ability to pay is a national disgrace. But more importantly, it is a competitive disadvantage which is costing our economy huge sums without an cost control o0n the present system - time for the competition of a public system to control the rapacious nature of the corporate health care wall street types -NOW !!!! Some times regulation is required and in healthcare its past due !!
I was recently laid off from from my job of 7years due to the economy and I know who is responsible for the bad economy - It's not President Obama.
I need knee replacement surgery. I do not have Insurance hence I cannot afford medical care in the land I was born - the good ole USA.
Anyway does anybody have any suggestions or ideas. I'm all ears.
Nice story. I had an emergency surgery in Germany in hours and it was sooo much easier than having one here in the US. They cared about making me healthy instead of making money from me. I'd rather wait a week and be treated with universal healthcare, than to die with no healthcare or lose everything like our current US system.
Another bonus is that a government run plan would not be involved with an individual's employer. Healthcare is a private matter and should have nothing to do with employers. I've seen too many people get fired because the company thought their healthcare premiums would rise because an employee was ill.
FYI People in America wait for open heart surgery all the time. My dad waited over 6 months, so just saying. And yes, he was in bad shape.
I feel your pain, I developed migraines after I developed MS. The HS is wonderful. I remember when I first moved there ad my experiece in dealing with their medical institutions. My employer gave me a book with the names of doctors and asked me to select who I wanted!
I was, as they say gobsmacked! I selected a primary physican and a dentist. I developed a toothache ad it got so bad, I finally had to visit the dentist.
I went in and the visit was smooth. I telephoned the dentist who told me to come on in. She (yep, she) saw me within the hour. I had a filling done and also got my teeth cleaned. I did not pay for the visit. I showed my health ID card and just signed in. It was wonderful. I have nothing but praise for the NHS.
I also get migraines. My former regular doctor used to prescribe Imitrex, which is basically Trexamet with the naproxyn sodium. Then I took another job that did not offer health insurance as a benefit. When my Cobra-ed coverage ended, I applied for Blue Cross. I was TURNED DOWN for ANY Blue Cross coverage specifically (and solely) because my doctor had prescribed Imitrex. I have this in writing. "They won't insure you because you got a HEADACHE?" my doctor asked, incredulously.
Now I pay almost $8,000 per year for private individual health insurance with a $5,000 per year deductible. There is a drug benefit, which reduces the cost of many medicines. However, the out-of-pocket cost to me of Trexamet is over $200 for six tablets. Each migraine requires at least two. There is now a generic of Imitrex, and the out-of-pocket cost to me of that drug (which does not work nearly as well) is around $180.
These are true stories from the world of private insurance, the world in which President Obama and the Democrats in congress so firmly believe.
"These are true stories from the world of private insurance, the world in which President Obama and the Democrats in congress so firmly believe."
Um, excuse me? OK, lets vote the Republicans back in... they REALLY CARE about you and are ready to offer an alternative to private health care
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You would heave received similar care had you been in Australia.
During my working years I would have paid out over $1 mil in taxes, some it obviously being invested by the government towards taking care of me when sick or aged. When I retired I could no longer afford medical insurance and had to let the policy lapse. Later I developed a heart condition requiring an operation costing over $200,000. As a pensioner it was done immediately & cost me absolutely nothing under Australian Medicare. The ongoing medication is costing me just a few dollars for pills that if not subsidized I would not be able to afford. It’s obviously far better living in a caring semi-socialist nation than in a ‘dog-eat-dog’ purely capitalist one, because had I been living in the US I would be dead long ago.
It always amazes me the number of people who've gotten sick in the last 6 months that weren't sick in the last 8 years and are now squalling like a tail-caught cat for national health care.
The premiums went up 120% in the last 8 years. We're not sicker. We're broker.
Right on!
Oh yeah if Britain's healthcare is so great why are there all these English and Candadian people coming over here looking for healthcare? Oh, that's right they're not! Another reichwing myth.
And you can document all these people coming here for our health care? Please do, then. They are coming here, giving up their universal health care at home, and paying out of pocket for ours.
Guess what. You have to prove it. I don't believe it.
Please finish reading a comment before replying to it. I believe the literary device being employed in the comment you replied to in such haste is called sarcasm. No one trumpeting GOP talking points would refer to it as the 'reichwing'.
I'm British, in my 50s & have lived in Britain most of my life - exclusively using the National Health Service for healthcare. It delivers very good quality care at a moderate cost: I've never in my life paid to see a doctor or to have any sort of hospital treatment, nor has treatment ever been dependent on my ability to pay or on the vagaries of an insurance company. (The only thing I pay is a flat fee of about $12 for each prescription - and you're exempt from that fee if you're under 16 or over 60). Private health insurance is available in Britain, but a tiny percentage of people use it - that, by itself, is testament to the success of the socialised NHS. If the NHS was as bad as it's sometimes painted, you'd expect people to be flocking to private medicine - but they aren't & never have been.
We pay for healthcare out of general taxation: I make about $100,000 gross a year & pay about 26% of my income in national income tax. On top of that we have a national sales tax at 15%. That pays for everything: education (almost all our schools & universities are funded from this), defence, the NHS, roads, social welfare, bailing out banks etc etc. It seems good value to me.
I make no comment on the US system: I've never used it &, given how it seems to operate, hope that I never have to.
The Europeans pay less in taxes as us but our government can't deliver us anything. Why is this??? We pay double for healthcare and education already and we have the worst systems of any developed nation.Thi
In this country what's important is MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. Who cares about people ,nobody , except in election time.
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i work in the arts. i am by definition of a career in the arts, fairly successful. still i've not been able to afford insurance for about 8 years and my union's plan has become so diminished that it's pretty much useless on it's own. living in nyc i've found a free clinic that supplies basic care to members of the entertainment community, a great 80-somethi
i'm all for universal health care. there is, as far as i can see, absolutely no downside. if the well healed have to pay an extra 1% a year is that really so tragic? as another friend who is a corporate efficiency consultant said to me, "...maybe it's time the u.s. developed a more mature system..."
having been trading "opinions" with an old friend on facebook (at the risk of sounding high and mighty, his limbaugh fueled rantings vs. my factual rebuttals with links to references wherever possible..
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i have been lucky to travel to western europe and japan for extended working trips. i've never, ever had a problem with health care in those places. generally you make an appointment which has always been the next day for me. you go, are examined be a doctor who has always seemed pleasant and knowledgable, and when i needed some antibiotics in japan was given 1 days' supply by the doc and told to come back in 24 hrs to see if they were effective. i returned as instructed, was given another 5 days course. i said to the doc that in the u.s. we would get a 10-14 day course and he replied that in japan that is considered unnecessary, that 5/6 days is enough. total cost about $35 with meds. throat infection gone in 4 days.
I have noticed that a lot of the American system is designed to work with as little doctor imput as possible. The Japan system you describe requires two visits. We have a shortage of doctors. The system is messed up and inefficient and delivers bad care for a lot of reasons.
Lastly, on this subject, my parents were both recipients of the British national health care system - both had cancer and both were cured. Unfortunately, my mother died from a post hospital infection (Staph, which is rampant in American hospitals). Neither me or my parents had to pay a penny. The system for payment was simple it was just a deduction from your income which I believe was fare, as the bigger your pay check the more you paid. Unlike the system in the commercial world were you pay the same regardless of income - in actual fact the less income you make the more you have to pay for health care because you are unable to take the risk like wealthy people can; i.e., they have high deductibles because they can afford to pay for physician visits - it should be the other way round. Lower income families can only afford high deductibles then have to pay for well care (some plans include well-care). The whole system is crazy and needs TOTAL reform (well, nearly). And then of course there is the existing condition fiasco.
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