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
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Glad to hear your migraine is better.
A single "story " is no reflection of any countries healthcare.
I worked for 6 months in England as a surgery resident (training surgeon) It worked well for me too. My Consultant Attending left for three weeks once and left me a full operative schedule. Talk about nervous. This was before internet and I was scrambling to find surgical texts with pictures of how to do circumcisions on adult males.
So anyway, that's my one story.
After a 23 year history of migraine with the same visual aura you describe, I had a stroke at the age of 43. It was then discovered that I had a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) which is an opening between the upper ventricles of the heart. A small device was implanted in my heart via a femoral vein, and after the first year (and a few medications that I take daily to prevent migraine) my migraines are in good control.
Don't assume a migraine is not a medical emergency. Make sure you do everything to prevent them, to include having a transesophageal echocardiogram to check for a PFO. PFO closure can eliminate migraines and reduce your chances of suffering a life changing stroke.
Clearly profit care is more important in America than patient care. If our health care system was so great and was the best care in the world, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. As a former health care giver, I am ashamed and sad to see what is called quality health care in TN & VA.
http://www
How many more have to die while we demand health care reform ?
Under 65? Expect your pre-Bismark health care to continue.
The majority of American want X. Corporations want Y. Corporations pay politicians, so we get is Y. that's your system.
This story still sickens me. A young family asked my help with their mortgage company - I did loan modifications. They ran into trouble when their baby tested positive for lead paint poisoning. The wife ran a home day care, and of course had to tell the parents that the house had lead - half quit. They took out a 2nd mortgage to put in new windows and remove the lead paint. That's when the husband had a heart attack; since he was a school bus driver, he couldn't work. The medical bills ran up. The mortgage company didn't care; gave them $50 off a month for 6 months. We tried to get other help, but they didn't qualify for any state or local assistance. Finally they declared bankruptcy. They lost the house and moved in with family. Heart breaking.
Back in the early 90s, I took care of my grandmother, who had Alzheimer's. I had been working, had insurance , but had never used it. We didn't want to put Gramma in a nursing home, so I left my job.
Fast forward 4 years & some of my fillings started falling out, then teeth broke. Then I started getting abcesses. Since I had rheumatic fever as a child, I have an enlarged heart & MVP, so a burst abcess could kill me . When I asked the social worker what kind of program I could get into, she told me that although I wasn't working, I was ABLE to work, so I qualified for nothing. Not even Food Stamps. Gramma was on G-tube feeding by then, so cans of Glucerna (paid for by Medicare) covered her nutritional needs. Me, I could starve, according to the state.
When I pointed out I wasn't working because I was caring for my grandmother instead of putting her in a nursing home, & saving the state a great deal of money, the social worker said she appreciated that, but I still didn't qualify for any sort of assistance.
So all of you here proclaiming you aren't going to have YOUR tax dollars pay for "X group", get your noses out of your portfolios & look around you. It isn't just talking points out here. It's real people, with real situations, all of them different.
I’m a naturalized American citizen and have had three experiences with socialized medicine:
I was working in Sweden and severely injured my hand, requiring extensive reconstructive surgery. After 5 days in the hospital I returned home. I now have 99% use of my hand and continue to play guitar. I was never presented with a bill. On follow up visits my hometown doctors were impressed with the quality of reconstruction.
I was in Scotland working and caught a vicious case of the flu. The hotel called the local doctor. He lived two houses down from the hotel and came to my room with medication to ease my suffering. I was never presented with a bill.
I was working in a mountain town in California, in what seams like a few short decades ago, when I came down with a bronchial infection. I was taken to the Local Community Medical Center where I receive care and medication to clear up the infection. When I explained I did not have the money to pay…well..
My point is, I’ve paid many a tax in three different countries and I don’t know how much money to the insurance companies but it was a great comfort to be able to get medical care when I needed it.
Socialized medicine, single payer, public option, whatever you want to call it…sign me up America. I’m ready.
some years ago my brother in law was vacationing in Madeira (an island of Portugal) where he had acute apendicitis and needed emergency surgery. He was operated on and had to be hospitalized for 4 days. His wife stayed with him in his room. Not being Portuguese citizen he had to pay for his treatment. Being American he was terrified. The bill came in under $200!
America! You are being robbed! Please wake up and demand what you deserve!
A few years ago,I was on vacation in Costa Rico and got hurt...I had hurt my ankle/foot & by taxi went to the ER...got 2 xrays/and a RX for pain pills....w
Well, maybe if it was broke, and they set it wrong, and you ended up with a gimp, you would have no ability to SUE the FRICKIN SOCKS off the Doc and the HOSPITAL in Costa Frickin Rica
They were confident of their skills and talents that they could treat him otherwise they would have NOT have. Especially a foreigner from sue-happy America.
If that had happened why wouldn't he be able to sue?
Wow, what an arguement against single payer health care aka socialized medicine.
Remind me never to debate you.
Costa Rica is not some third world country. They have an excellent education system, with 96% literacy rate. They also have modern hospitals. I'm sure the doctors there know how to set a broken bone!
Costa Rica has better health care and ranks higher on the WHO scale which USA is glorious 37. I'd rather go to a doctor there.
The majority of Costa Rican doctors were trained in America or Europe and yes you have the right to sue for malpractice.
Yes, I too had an experience like this in the North of England. Amazing kindess and expert medical help after car crash. I am waiting for the bill and it has been many years, since the accident.
I was in a head on car collision accident in England a few years ago. My father, my mother and myself were wearing seatbelts, so we survived a bad crash. The most amazing aspect, however, was what Katharine experienced. An amubulance took us to the Emergency Room at the big hospital in York. We were x rayed, my mother spent the night under observation and my father and I were treated and then released.
The doctors and nurses, even the police, were professional, kind and very respectful. I filled out a number of forms with all our U.S, based addresses, etc. We never got a bill, just what I have described.
So I too, got treated to First World Health Care, and I know we would have been treated with the same respect and care for our health and safety, no matter our nationality, race or creed. Of course, as Katharine pointed out there are issues with the British system, but to its core it aims to care.
I hear stories like this from everyone who travels overseas or are living overseas.
Isn't Naprosyn really just the same thing as Aleve? I can get a bottle of that at the corner store in the good old US of A.
It's the other medication she was taking which is a prescription medication. The medication constricts blood vessels, which are dilated in migraines. That, and the pain attenuating effect of the NSAID work rather effectively for some individuals with migraines.
Reading your story and others similar to yours on this thread convinces me that even the small minority of Americans who do not support such a system would rise up and say "SHAME" to those who are trying to block access if they knew this truth.
I lived in Wales, UK for 16 months during 2007/2008. I have many health problems and won't begin to go into the problems I've had with insurance over the years.
I had to see a Dr. for an emergency as soon as I arrived in the UK and expected a huge hassle since I wasn't yet set up with NHS. I called the local surgery (Drs office) and had an appointment within 30 minutes. I saw a Dr. within 30 minutes of my arrival there. I tried to pay but was told they wouldn't know what to do with payment. (This surgery became my regular Drs.) I walked across the street to fill my prescriptions and when I tried to pay was informed all scripts filled in Wales written by a Welsh Dr. were free. COOL!
This level of treatment continued for my entire stay and I miss my Welsh Dr. I did wait about 6 weeks for a first visit to a specialist. It takes 5 months to see the same kind of specialist here. I could always see my GP same day there. It's a 3 day wait here sometimes just to see the nurse practitioner. My Welsh Dr. diagnosed and solved 2 problems I couldn't get any of 4 Drs. here to acknowledge.
I met people in the UK who complained about their system until I talked for a while with them about ours. They can't imagine having medical bills big enough to force bankruptcy.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
