To: Canadians & English Voxers
Does the universal health care system work well in your country? I've mostly seen Canadian and British folks on Vox, but I'd love to hear from anyone with experiences living abroad in any country with universal health care systems.
Does it work? Does it suck? Would you rather live with America's health insurance system?
Comments
From a purely personal viewpoint, I would say it does work, but it is pretty shakey in parts. My local GP is fabulous for everything under the sun, but I live in a middle class area and the surgery has been properly invested in; it's light, clean and by and large the adult patients are employed and educated. This is a contrast to other areas. My mother used to work for the Medical Architectural Research Unit and she used to go and interview doctors to get their views on the design of their surgeries. She said that one doctor used to go around his local area with a wheel barrow on a daily basis and pick up all the bricks and masonry lying around just to stop something been thrown through the surgery window at some stage. The point being, that there are huge differences.
Going to A&E or having babies, as I have recently, the hospital has been good - some of my experiences better than others and both down to personnel - the good experiences have been with coming into contact with dedicated, caring nurses/midwives, the bad when I've relied on agency nurses who are just interested in finishing their shift. I'm not sure if this would be any different with a change to the funding stream.
The NHS does work, but it is massively under-funded and a lot of resources are ploughed into unnecessary beauracracy. Like most people in England, I feel inordinately fond and protective of the system, but there have been occasions when I've longed for the fast track of private healthcare. My husband has been a beneficiary of private healthcare on two occasions and it really was an eye-opener - how the other half lives eh?
UHC= Good because it covers everyone.
UHC=Bad because the gov't can then set rules and stipulations to the system such as if you smoke in some countries - you get no coverage and will have to pay out of pocket for health care.
UHC=Good because the gov't can leverage its power and force drug companies to lower costs
UHC=Bad because the drug companies lose profits that would normally be put back into R&D so, new medicines/technologies are slower to develop.
You can go on and on forever. For every legitimate good point of a UHC there is a bad one. I think the trick that the US has to figure out is how to avoid the pitfalls of the other systems. They cannot tax us any more than we are being taxed and they need to insure us the freedom to choose different plans or expanded coverage at a different cost.
Beyond that, my only worry is that the gov't, especially in hard ecconomic times may single out segments of the population to not give coverage or to give sparse coverage. I think aging baby boomers would be at risk here. The gov't sure could stand to save a lot of money and solve the pension and Social Security problems if they could trigger mechanisms to thin that herd a bit by UHC policies.
Let's say that UHC was already set up during the Bush years, do you think that they would cut funding to the war or spin something like HIV is a preventable disease and we aren't going to cover it?
I know that may sound far fetched but now that files have been released on many of the gov't experiments during the 50s-60s, it is kind of appauling that they performed nuclear tests on targeted nursing home patients.
Then to answer your question, I would say that I am very grateful for the NHS safety net. It's got a lot of problems - delays, underfunding, etc - but there's no underclass of people who can't afford to healthcare here. Okay, so people may die waiting for operations... and it is the very idea that I could ever have to wait to be screened or treated for something serious like cancer (which would worsen while I wait) that means I'd never go without my private health insurance backup.
In the UK, we've had a bit of debate about, or at least questions surrounding, the idea that undocumented migrants may be denied health care because of the ID card system that the government's introducing. I know that a number of doctors have spoken against this and promised not to make it happen - to give health treatment to people who're not officially on the books to receive it. I think this is right, for two reasons: 1) Human rights and humanity, and 2) the benefit that the rest of society has in not having a health-underclass. TB is already becoming more common again in the UK - imagine the scenario, for example, that some people couldn't get treatment for this or for something else spreadable and dangerous because the system wouldn't treat them.
In short, no matter how badly it may perform in some areas, the NHS is not something that I would go without.
But thank you for providing the best laugh of the day. I knew you'd show up here.
At the same time, I also think that people need to become more personally responsible for their health. By this I mean taking care of yourself rather than relying on medicines to alleviate illness that could be avoided by eating right and exercising. I imagine this is a problem regardless of whether you have private insurance or government insurance, though.
--Jim from England hated the health care system because he felt it was inadequate.
--My co-worker Susan is Canadian she liked the health care provided there because everyone had coverage though she did say that the coverage was at times slow and some things aren't covered.
--My Bro-in-law is Canadian and hated the health care system because he didn't feel he should work hard and have lesser insurance so that everyone could be covered.
--Florida State sux.
=)
And, yes, FSU has sucked for 8 years... now it is Auburn's turn.
BTW, I think I am on for the NC weekend.
I lived in California for 20 years. I always had health insurance because my parents always worked in jobs where that was possible, and when I was old enough to work and was living on my own, I worked at Starbucks and had health care through them.
I moved to the UK three years ago, and am now on the NHS.
In my opinion, universal health care is great because even though I am self employed and am not exactly rolling in money - I have health insurance. I have access to free birth control because, well, it's free here. If I were to move back to the States, health insurance would not be made available to me because, well, I'm self employed. I would have to pay a lot of money for it...money that I don't have.
The NHS isn't perfect. It can take a long time to get doctors appointments, therapy and psychologists are expensive, and their screening ages for things like breast cancer and cervical cancer completely astound me.
However - they're on to something.
In the US it seems to be extremely polarized. You have people with money and the best health care and doctors in the world. And then you have people on the complete opposite end of that. On the NHS, everyone has health care no matter what. If you are here legally, have a National Insurance Number and proof of address - you can have health care for free. (Plus perscriptions costs, etc.)
There are people who can afford to pay for private health care, like Bupa. If I could afford Bupa I would use it just because it is better than the NHS. Essentailly, if you have the money you can upgrade. But you always have a base health care system you can rely on...and that's what's missing in the US.
As a citizen of a country like the US - "the best country in the world" - shouldn't it just be a given that you have health care? It blows my mind.
the opinions are unanimous and "universal" with all voxers who actually live in countries with a NHS -- but of course they have true experience and know what the hell they are talking about. =) thanks again, luv.
What the hell? have you developed Madonna syndrome an decided to go faux-Brit?
and i have always been a fan of madonna. with brit, the only thing i pay attention to is her rack.
Universal covers everyone.
Private gets better coverage for those that can afford it. I can afford it.
And you can do the Brit accent and phrases but for the love of god don't wear the cones. =)
It's hard for me to listen to people in the US go on and on about how great the health system is. Yes, it is great - if you can afford it, if this, if that. Too many ifs.
I've been on both, and the thing is, is that if I wanted to start-up my own company or if I lost my job in the US (which is very, very probable at the moment) I would be screwed. In the UK, I've both lost my job and started up my own thing and still have health coverage.
To me that just sounds like a big DUH.