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.

Follow Katharine Zaleski on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kzaleski

Comments

[bernusdellus]

I now live in New Zealand, but once lived in the US. The difference in medical systems is astounding. Here in NZ I recently ruptured an achilles tendon. Under a scheme called ACC, any accidental injuries are covered by the government. Not only did I get cast, crutches and specialist doctors visits for free, but the put in an access ramp and non slip mats on the boat where I live.

In contrast, when I lived in the U.S. My wife was having a miscarriage. She was losing a lot of blood and was already white and going into shock when we got to the hospital. The people at the desk realised we had no insurance [having only recently arrived] and wouldn't let us in. In the end, a sympathetic doctor gave my wife an emergency D&C and let her sleep on a gurney in the hall. It still cost several thousand dollars!

Its worth mentioning that the maximum individual tax rate in New Zealand is 33% and low earners pay less.

[John Kennedy]

I have this dream of emigrating to NZ...

[WFTomba]

I'm not in favor of a fully socialized British system or a single-payer Canadian system. Those systems work fine, but I think we can have good healthcare without going that far. But there has to be change. I don't think it's very smart of reform advocates to keep focusing on the uninsured as the problem, because the fact is many people who DO have health insurance are paying a lot of money and getting substandard care and long waits. This is exactly the situation free-market competition is supposed to prevent, and in most businesses that principle works. Providers of services are supposed to compete with one another to offer BETTER service at a LOWER price. If they don't do that, customers are expected to switch to the competitor.

What we need to ask ourselves is why this principle doesn't seem to operate in the field of health care and health insurance, and what changes we can make to get the system running the way it's supposed to run.

[quiviran]

Make health insurance illegal. That should do it.

[rperson]

That's an interesting theory but why create a new system based on one that is already a failure when there are other 'public option' systems around the world that already work.

It's like having a square block and trying to use is as a wheel when everyone else has moved on the more usable round block.

[paulacvdw]

American health care, as it is, is a rip off. Hype. And not anywhere as good as that provided practically anywhere else in the developed world.

[paulacvdw]

I got gastroenteritis in the UK from eating food served by a hotel that was "off." Three days in my own room, with iv drip and whatever, then I checked myself out...no cost to me. I was a tourist.
Lived in Spain, paid taxes... 2 broken feet, 1 wrist tendonitis, and a hysterectomy. I was paying about $100 mo for private care. Immediate attention. Doctor of my choice. Successful hysterectomy (and previous tests that needed a day in hospital) with private room, spare bed for person I CHOSE to be with me to call the nurse when the drip got low.
Came to USA. Cut hand badly on a Starkist small tuna can, needed hand surgery and nerve repair. Woke up wherever, with MEN in beds opposite me, no caring medical care and a $13K bill to repair the wound.
Go figure.

[alankdkd]

I got pneumonia while in Germany for work. After seeing the doctor (she apologized for the half-hour wait because it was busy and she was the only doctor on call), within 10 MINUTES, she did an exam, an ultrasound, took blood for a test, and wrote an order for an X ray.

10 minutes to get the X ray, 10 more for it to be developed, and in another 10 minutes I was leaving with a prescription. They copied my US health insurance card and didn't charge anything.

In the US, that would have taken many hours, and would have cost hundreds of dollars.

The health system in the US is corrupted by corporations that use the Democrats and the Republicans to keep it that way. If you vote for either of these two corporate-funded parties, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!

The Green Party and the Socialists have been calling for single-payer health care in the US for years, and 5% of the vote will get them Federal funding and a place on the ballot. Want change? Vote for it!

[smileatfear]

Although Katherins's great-uncle had to wait for a week to get his open heart surgery, he got it and he got no follow up bill. He could relax and heal instead of being worried to death over how he was going to pay the bill without bankrupting his family. Here in the U.S. - if he was one of the many without insurance or with an insurance company that refused to pay, his family and friends would be holding fund raising events and putting coin jars on the counters of the local 7-11s. How long would he have to wait for his surgery then?

[RAF3]

20 years living with the "inferior" Canadian system got me a knee reconstruction, an ankle reconstruction, a thumb reconstruction, 2 beautiful children born via C-section, multiple trips to the doctor and emergency room, etc. etc. etc.

Quality of care and surgery -- at least as good and as prompt at I have ever gotten in the USA.

Never cost me more than my monthly premium ($70 per month, more or less, for the family and included dental) -- lots of dental visits too, now that I think about it -- and a few minor co-pays at the drug store.

HR 676 is the answer -- cut our costs, insure everyone, maintain quality (actually improve it if you consider the ability to do more effective preventative care and remove the stress, financial and otherwise, with which our current system burdens us).

A public option (if incredibly strong and utilized and expanded) better than nothing (maybe) -- real universal coverage, without the private insurance middleman (which adds nothing except roadblocks to care and extra costs) as in HR676 ..........­.....price­less.

[Manthan Bhatt]

omg a dream of mine.

real universal health care! god thats amazing. it will happen one day people! :D

[Artemis34]

“Go home and call the doctor!” my colleagues said.

I was in Argentina, sick, and like all good American workaholics, at work!

“I’m American, we don’t go to the hospital unless we’re going to die [because then you don't have to pay the bill]” I said.

They explained that I could get care in Argentina and I needn’t worry about my pocketbook.

They sent me off to my apartment with a phone number. I called and shortly after a doctor and nurse ARRIVED AT MY APARTMENT!

They examined me, said it was going around my neighborhood, gave me medicine and a prescription if I needed more, and gave instructions for follow-up.

No bill, FOR A HOUSE CALL!

I lived in Argentina for four more years and was very satisfied with the public care.

We call countries like Argentina and Chile “third world” but they can deliver care to their people and the US cannot.

Demand your Senators support Sen. Sanders’ S.703 and your representative support Rep. Conyers’ HR 676, the single payer public plans.

See Where Congress Stands and how to contact them here:
http://standwithdrdean.com/where_congress_stands

[awryly]

The average American, and particularly the poor American eluded by the American "dream", are paying for the weird philosophy that says it's a virtue to exploit others.

It's not just your health system; it's your entire social system - which is geared to the ludicrous notion of "opportunity" - to take advantage of your co-citizens.

Only third-world countries do that.

[awryly]

American medical research constantly invents new ways to add to the costs that Americans face.

The research is applaudable. But its application is deplorable.

Each new advance costs American patients exponentially.

But, hey, science costs.

You don't get to moon for free.

[smileatfear]

As taxpayers, we all ponied up to help a few brave people get to the moon. The least we could do is pony up to make sure every one of our fellow Americans gets the medical care that they need, irregardless of their ability to pay.

[starboymikey]

In this country Katherine's great-uncle would probably have gotten a bed immediately, provided he'd had insurance. There would have been lots of beds because of all the people that had no insurance and thus could get no treatment.

In neo-Darwinist America, survival of the fittest doesn't pertain to evolution as such, but to who can afford survival. If you want to define "fitness" this way, I suppose our health care system does improve the fitness of the species as a whole by weeding out the both the non-healthy and the non-wealthy.

[Artemis34]

I'd say it is more like Calvinism than "neo-Darwi­nism."

Republicans see any exploitation of poor and working class people as okay. The poor and working class are getting what they deserve in their Calvinist view (1).

This is how Barbara Bush could actually say of the people suffering in New Orleans "this is working out very well for them." http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/barbara2.asp

(1) "The basic principles of Calvinism, a doctrine held and promulgated by some of our earliest settlers, hold that all men are totally depraved, but some are saved and others damned, at God's pleasure and not necessarily with any explanation. Furthermore, this grace is irresistible and permanent, so if you're among the saved Elect, no action can place you among the damned Preterite. At its most extreme, this doctrine is known as antinomianism, the doctrine that the Elect are free of all constraint by laws." http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=04/05/18/12374288

Obviously, you can guess who they think the Elect is, the conservative elite, 1% most wealthy, and they suppose the rest of us are the Preterite.

And "free of all constraint by laws," doesn't that sound just like our last administration?

[booboo111]

Nice story , Katherine, but when good verses lobbyists with unlimited amounts of cash, guess who wins. My advice; move to a civilized country...­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­....... ..and take me with you.

[wadda]

In Australia, my wife obtained a 3 month supply of a prescription medication that was going to run out while we were in the US. It cost about US$150 (same day doctor visit and medication).

She went to a US doctor ($100 and 3 day wait) to get a refill. The price at the pharmacy was $1100!

She checked into mail order from a Canadian pharmacy. The cost, with shipping, was US$180.

Shipping doesn't cost that much. I was outraged that the Canadians were gouging her nearly 20 bucks just for the medication.

I have worked in, and have been treated by, the US health care system. I have participated in the Australian system. Those who claim the US has "the best" health care system do not know about which they speak.

I tire of ignorant, ill informed, or self-serving opinion being passed off as good governance.

[smileatfear]

Thank you. Any of us who have had experiences outside of the US system know the US system is not "the best." I get so tired of people claiming that all the medical research and breakthroughs are coming from the US too, and that is why we pay more than anyone else. A tremendous amount of research goes on in other countries and they are using more advanced techniques than many hospitals and drs. here use. Hope you all are sending your personal stories to your senators and congressmen. They are the ones who really need to hear from us.

[Peabodies]

I have had urgent health care treatment in several countries outside of the U.S. (Canada, Europe, West Africa)--

I was never asked about "insurance";

I was seen by a doctor or a nurse promptly, with empathy and professionalism;

The treatment worked;

The cost, if any, was very affordable.

To be fair, the urgent care were not long-term serious illnesses, and I have received "empathy and professionalism" here in the U.S., but that is where the comparison ends.

All the countries where I was treated had universal health care; they didn't treat patients as "profit centers". We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for having let conditions here get SO BAD. We used to be a decent society. We can become that again. AND NOW IS THE TIME!

[smileatfear]

The idea of "decency" seems to be out of favor with a cohort of our more right-leaning fellow citizens. Look at the firestorm that took place when President Obama mentioned that "empathy" should be one of the many characteristics found in a good judge. Sad. Not sure how we got this low.

[army193]

Watch this and understand your enemy: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

July 10, 2009

With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.

[smileatfear]

It was a great interview and very enlightening. How anyone could listen to Potter, ex-CIGNA exec., and not be angry and disillusioned with the insurance industry, I don't know. We deserve better than having our carcasses picked over by the vultures in the insurance industry. It seems that pretty much the only people now who are against public health care are people in the insurance industry and a few libertarians who think social Darwinism is the ultimate good.