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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Rude Pundit: An American in the UK National Health Service
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-american-in-uk-national-health.htmlThe Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
9/14/2017
An American in the UK National Health Service
It had been a stressful few weeks, with far more than the usual amount of fuckery and frantic frenzy, and I arrived in Liverpool last Friday on a total of about 4 hours of sleep in two days. Walking around the Liverpool One area shortly after dropping off my bags, heading towards the Tesco to get some supplies, I realized that I was sweating like Nicholas Cage on a meth bender and my heart was racing like, well, the same. I felt a tightness in my chest, short of breath, needing to sit down, and I thought, "Well, fuck, this would fuck up the next week or so." When your Dad dies of a heart attack at 46, you take that shit seriously.
snip//
I've sped up the last part here, but, from walking into the clinic to leaving the ER of the hospital, it was a total of four hours. And there was not a single person I met who seemed angry or beleaguered or disgusted by the system they worked in. Every one of them was simply devoted to making sure I was ok. No profit motive. No forms to fill out. No card to check. No in-network or out-of-network. No phone calls to beg for approval. I didn't pay a dime. That's how you treat a guest.
I was blown away. Obviously, I know it can't always work so smoothly and efficiently (and that there are rocky times ahead for the NHS), but, holy shit, there was something so sane and humane about the entire process that I felt a revulsion towards what we're put through in the United States just to try to not die, the degradation of putting a price tag on our health.
If we actually lived up to the ideals that we supposedly have as Americans, we'd look out for each other by making sure that no one has to have one's worth measured against what one can afford.
Fucking pass single-payer. Or stop fucking pretending that we're a society and just admit that the USA is a Darwinian dystopia.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)NeoGreen
(4,031 posts)...for London to start her Masters.
Your simple note makes me feel a bit less worried.
Thanks
NG
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)Police are everywhere and quite visible, and she says that when you go up to them, they ask, How may I help you!"
Of the several visits, her only cost was to pay for medicine twice, one for 5 pounds and one for 10 pounds.
Delphinus
(11,840 posts)like what a healthcare experience should be. No profits on people's health.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)The way it should be. Why do we settle for shit?
Leith
(7,813 posts)That's what we deserve here.
jpak
(41,759 posts)And their communist terror health care system which we are told is the suckiest.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)When my hubs was an "overseas fellow/ visiting scholar" at Churchill College, Cambridge U., my 18mo son became very sick (fever, kept nothing in his stomach). We did not have a car. I called health services and explained his condition. Within 30 minutes a doctor was at my door! She then drove us (drove us in her own car!!) to Addenbrooke's Hospital. We spent the night and my son recovered. We were not charged for anything!! I was most amazed at all the caring people in that hospital. I heartedly second Rude's statement: "there was not a single person I met who seemed angry or beleaguered or disgusted by the system they worked in."
I did have a short form to fill in and sign which took less than a minute.
mgardener
(1,819 posts)500.00 for full calender year, all the health care Dr. Visits and medication she needed.
We live near the Canadian border and lots of people go over the border for dental care and medication.
It is a crime that the heath care in this country is so expensive.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Rob H.
(5,352 posts)LittleGirl
(8,291 posts)our fucking nightmare healthcare system. Hubby is British and I have several British friends. They love their healthcare system even if it's not perfect.
Along with #45, they just can't understand our ways.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)I used the NHS and my extended family LOVES the NHS, escecially after hearing the stories about the US "system" EVERYONE in this country should be clamoring for a similar system. If France, Canada, Germany, Holland and even Cuba can do it, so can this country. The greedy politicians are all that stands in the way of passing a decent healthcare system.
LittleGirl
(8,291 posts)was furious when I explained the shit we put up with.
LostOne4Ever
(9,290 posts)WoonTars
(694 posts)...
TomSlick
(11,109 posts)Some years ago, I traveled to Dublin carrying my wife's luggage when she was on a business trip. Half way across the Atlantic, it occurred to me that I had left a prescription at home.
As soon as we were checked into the hotel, I found a chemist to try to figure out if my doctor back in home could e-mail/fax my script and get it filed. The chemist suggested I go to the clinic next door and see if they could help.
I was skeptical but desperate. I went to the clinic - told the receptionist my problem and took a seat. One whole lot quicker than I would have seen my doctor at home, I was explaining my problem to the doctor. I told the doctor that I needed an anti-rejection drug for a recent cornea transplant. I knew the name of the drug and he could look in my eye and tell there had been a transplant. I walked out with an Irish script the local chemist could accept. The doctor's visit cost nothing - no fuss no muss.
Medicare for all would be OK but only as a bridge to a National Health system.
BannonsLiver
(16,448 posts)In talking with Canadians and Brits over the years I've never met a one of them that would want our system. A Canadian Air Force officer I met years ago called our system barbaric, and that was AFTER the ACA passed.
KelleyKramer
(8,982 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Walk and chew gum at the same time.
So over this shit.
IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)which made many of them understand the need for universal healthcare to take care of their many wounded who were unable to pay while Americans were told to be suspicious of socialists.
NHS is not single payer. It's far more socialist than what Bernie and Conyers are proposing for us.