Don't panic! UK - style health care will not kill you.

Edited to say: this is not meant to be an irritated outburst but apparently it can be read that way. I can't be bothered to rewrite it but please believe that this is intended as a reassurance just in case you get universal health care in the States!! Not as a rant!!! SO I avhe changed the subject title as well!


Let's have a deal! I'll accept that Michael Moore was biased and unfair in his expose of the US health care systems (probably got as much publicity over here as the current reports in the US about the NHS!).  But can you accept that the current propoganda put out by US lobby groups about the UK National Health Service is equally biased and out of context?

Now I am not saying our system is perfect! It isn't! Far from it! But then no system is! I do hear scare stores but I have never actually anyone who had all the problems anti-NHS people describe. it is always about someone they heard of whose friend.......

I am 58 years old and none of my family, current generation, previous generation, younger generation has had any bad experiences. From birth of my grandchild through to the terminal illness and hospice care of my mother.

Let me describe a fairly typical example. About a year ago my husband phoned our family doctor to make an appointment to investigate why he always felt so tired. The appointment was made for the following morning. The doc suspected sleep apnoea and referred him to a sleep specialist. The appointment for that was for two weeks later. He stayed overnight in a private room in a clean, modern, efficient hospital. The following morning he saw the consultant who said he had severe s.a.. He then (30 minutes later!) saw a specialist nurse who fitted him for a mask, gave him three different types to try and sent him home with the CPAP machine.

Not quite the health service the lobbyists are describing! Nor is the experience of my daughter who just had a baby. A named midwife with her during labour; home visits from the midwife every day for the first week, weekly visits from a health visitor for the next month; a breast feeding nurse and a weaning specialist available to come to her home if and when she wanted them to. Or the daughter of my friend who is having problems conceiving - IVF on the NHS, waiting list of.... one month!!

Don't get me wrong!! I haven't seen the campaign - just heard about it on the News. But whatever stories they tell are probably true!! Just like the Michael Moore ones about the US. But anything taken out of context can terrify!!Not trying to be controversial - just to tell you that universal health care is not all bad!

Kate

Wow who rattled your cage Kate?    It has to be said that there is good and bad in all health care.  Yes it can take two weeks to get an appointment and be dealt with, but in an emergency most docs and hospitals are great its just the general every day stuff.

Heather

Oh, no, no!! Not rattled in any cage!! Just concerned that a very negative message might be getting across about national health care! I have actually had PMs from people worried that the US system might be going towards the UK model.

This thread was intended to REASSURE not argue. I am not in the slighest upset, irritated or rattled!! Sorry it read that way!

I have added a bit to the original post to clarify!

Kate

Glad to hear it, we dont want anyone getting upset over politics

The trouble here is that there are so many who cannot afford private health care and some people think that the government pays for everything in the UK.  Unfortunatey the general population have no idea that we pay in to the NHS through taxes and thats what pays for everyones benefits.  Whatever system you use has its pros and its cons in my humble opinion.  

Interesting post Kate.  Thxs as always

I have to say that I am disappointed in US health care.  I think I should be.  It is one of the major concerns in the government right now.   I heard on the news that US is 32nd in the world as far as good service in health care.  That comes from answering the phone at the dr's office to dealing with insurance clerks to the er nurses.    It definitely is a money thing and we are out of sync.  It's not that we cannot provide excellent healthcare.  We can.  It is just all the politics of it all.  And it is hard on us all, the doctor's, nurses, clerical staff and patients.  Medical staff have to do more for less money,  work holidays, swing shifts, patients co pays and premiums are rising.  I've seen a little of it all.  I have had 14 operations in the last 20 years and have worked in a very big hospital outpatient and emergency room.  

On a positive note, even though I didn't vote Obama, now I'm for him.  Why?  Cause He is our president.  I only have good things to say or nothing at all.  And every night my family prays for him and all the government officials.  He has much support and seems to know what he is doing.  So I feel very hopeful that there are better days ahead for US and our healthcare.

I wish we had your health care here in the US. I have been working in Health care for the better part of almost 20 years. In the last 9, I have been working at top cancer hospital in NYC. I schedule appts for cancer patients. Wait times for patients needing to see a medical oncologist can at times be six to eight weeks out, which is absolutely awful if you are needing treatment urgently. Also, I can't even count the times we turn patient's away because their insurance coverage does not allow them to come and seek treatment. It is truly heartbreaking to hear the stories.  I haven't seen Michael Moore's latest flick on healthcare. Though I am curious, cause he visits my native Cuba and discusses healthcare available there.

Great post! Thank you for sharing....Mimi

Mimi, I am absolutley sure there are equally nasty stories, true ones, about the UK cancer clinics. Isn't it disgraceful in civilised countries!! With some cancers, we are guaranteed first treatment within a week, but not all. But, of course, the issue of being turned away could never happen.

MM likes health care in Cuba! But then not surprisingly - Cuba may have all sorts of other issues but hasn't it got more docs per capita than any other country in the world? Trains more docs from other developing countries and provides more docs than any other for organisations doing relief medical work in poor countries??

Kate

I am not sure about those statistics, you probably know more than me there. I do know that Cuba has pretty advanced medical care. The biggest industry after travel in Cuba, is the pharmaceutical industry. What is funny is how my family there asks us for glasses, medicine and the such all the time from us here in the US. How do you have advanced medical care, but not provide it for your own? These are things that are supposed to be available for all in with socialized health care. The unfortunate part of this is that in Cuba you receive better care, better housing and a better way of life if you belong to the Communist Party.  So Micheal Moore can toot Cuba's horn all he wants, but I truly doubt he got the full story about true medical care in Cuba.

Mimi

MM has a definite agenda!! And it is not pro-USA! Well not pro the USA over the last 8 years!! And to be pro-Cuba would be to be anti-US! He may quieten down now!!

So, no, I am sure I don't know more than you!! You have your ear to the ground and will be much more up to date!

 Kate

Michael Moore is a total A-Hole....I am sure that if he got sick he would absolutely rush right on over to Cuba for health care and not drive down the streets in Beverly Hills to seek care.....

He is anti US and I am tired of him making millions of dollars bashing the US.   There is nowhere else in the world I would rather live based on Healthcare.  Why is it that people come to the US for their education and training?  Most end up staying and bringing their familes.  There is a reason for it.  I'm not looking for a debate, I'm, just tired of everyone knocking the US.  I am not a "Guilty" American and do not bash my country. 

There will never be a reform on healthcare.  There are too many people making money with the Insurance compaines.  We can argue it until we get blue in the face, but once again Americans like to pick their freedoms and having a reformed healthcare system "for everyone" goes against that.  Not everyone has the same illness, etc.  so how could we all have "the same."