Reply #8: You want single-payer, government healthcare. [View All]

[JDPriestly]

That's what you are describing. That's what I experienced when I went to doctors in Europe. I got to go to any doctor I wanted. I just called for an appointment or dropped by to see if the doctor was available. A nice lady (maybe a secretary, maybe the nurse) in the doctor's office took down my information. The doctor applied for the payment.

If the doctor gave me a prescription, I took it to the pharmacy. The pharmacist took it, filled it and charged me a small co-pay. Same for the dentist although back then, I had to pay extra for Novocaine or something like that when I went to the dentist. The "extra" for the painkiller wasn't much. Believe me, if we could afford it, it was next to nothing. The doctors were great. The care was great. My children, my husband and I remained in excellent health.

My husband had a fairly serious accident and broke his femur. That created a serious problem, but the same kind of difficulty could have arisen in the U.S. That is the only time we had a problem. The European doctors would have handled the complications with my husband's leg, but we came back to the U.S. before they had a chance.