My co-worker didn't know that the UK health system was 'free'

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Free at the point of use.

I told her that my mother is in a hospital in Liverpool, England after a fall and she will not be kicked out until she is better. Here in the USA she would have been flung out long ago to fend for herself.

[pkdu]

1. It helped my working class grandparents to all live into their eighties. Did they have to wait a

Few months for some treatments ? , sure. Could they EVER have afforded Health insurance premiums whilst working 50 years on minimum wage?....not a fucking chance.

I get so angry when I hear the American Conservative criticism UK healthcare.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. But the UK is SO close to being Your-O-Peein......

It's better to be a broke, sick American, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps......the bootstraps we're trying desperately to cut!

We're conserving the world's best healthcare for the (wealthy) people that can afford it!

[pkdu]

7. yes.we.are.

325k for a colleague's wife to have a extended bedrest delivery...disgusting ( yes insurance covered it...but its a scam)

[Zoeisright]

3. There are so MANY stupid

and deliberately ignorant Americans.

[busterbrown]

4. I wonder why they are deliberately stupid?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Corporations don't want you know about sensible health systems

[baldguy]

6. Why did slave owners want to keep their slaves illiterate?

[busterbrown]

8. That’s not was stated!!

They were "deliberately stupid” Means they do it to themselves..

Why would anyone deliberately choose to be stupid?

[Trascoli]

9. Looks at their teeth!

Of course it's free. It amazes me that people don't know this. English people have the worst teeth in the world, it don't matter if they are rich or not, they just dont care anymore. America will be like this soon I guess.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. Teeth maintenance

teeth due to lack of fluoride in water, bad eating habits, bad maintenance, no flossing etc. Plus I agree the dentists were bad in the old days but have now improved over the last 20-30 years. Young people in the UK do care about their teeth now.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. Not true at all, actually

I saw a lot more people with rotten teeth in the USA, where a lot of working people put off visiting a dentist because they don't have insurance. Dental care is covered under the NHS; what's not covered is cosmetic dentistry and orthodontics. People in the UK don't have the American obsession for perfectly straight, whitened teeth. Which doesn't make them "bad".

[davidpdx]

11. We have a similar system here in Korea

My FIL was in the hospital and he is indigent with no assets. He had a bout with throat and intestinal cancer (I can't remember for sure if those are right) and he had his medical bill cut in half after the insurance picked up the part that was covered. He was in the hospital an entire months and had two surgeries and I believe his bill was only about $3,000 (fortunately all of us in the family covered that). I was in the hospital for 5 days in 2011 in the US (I was actually on vacation, one I hope to soon forget) and the bills were over $30,000.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. It is ridiculous that US hospitals charge so much

$30,000! Wow!