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Interestly enough I read a study last year comparing the health of the United States and the United Kingdom. In it it stated that the U.S. spends approx. $5274 per person, per year, on health care and the United Kingdom spends $2164. The result was that the US is less healthy than the UK population.
In terms of waiting lists and dirty hospitals, I don't think that is only prevelant in the UK, it does exist here as well. Especially for a highly recommended physician. My husband was on a waiting list to see an well renowned physician for a little over 5 months. In addition, there are many hospitals all over the US that you will find filthy
I think a lot of Americas are under the impression that in countries that have universal health care systems, those are the only options. They aren't. In Britain, if you don't want to use the NHS, you can still pay premiums for private coverage just like we do here in the US. It's the same with the must tooted French system. Many Frenchmen have private insurance that complements the basic primary care that they get through their country's coverage. It also covers things that are poorly covered by the national system (such as dental and optical care). Where universal health care really makes a difference is for the struggling individuals who can't afford ANY type of coverage. They are the ones that are benefiting from the national services. They don't care if they have to wait a few weeks to see a doctor or if their hospital is run down or dirty because it is still better than having NO CARE AT ALL.
I don't get you guys. You are basically paying for socialized medicine as it is already with your health care premiums. Do you realize this at all?? With socialized medicine, you are NOT paying just for your own but YOU pay for people who don't have health insurance. That's right, you are paying yours + a percentage of everyone else. We have a form of socialized medicine already where it is paid directly to the government... its called Medicare and Medicaid. That's the type of medicine you can expect to get in socialized medicine with the exception that YOU are paying MORE not LESS. It changes nothing but increasing what YOU pay already by having to pay for OTHER PEOPLE'S health care expenses who are not paying for their own health care expenses. You pay your own health care premiums and everyone else's through the health care tax in a socialized medicine program. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS? Honestly, I don't see you getting quality care as you are TREATED more as a customer than a patient. That is a reason why most socialized health care plans also have a PRIVATE SECTOR. That's what we have now, private hospitals except to get into it you have to pay MORE (i.e. ANOTHER insurance premium). So not only are you paying for your current insurance premium + a percent of everyone else's health care costs + another private insurance plan for basically WHAT YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW! I don't understand you guys, you WANT to pay MORE for the what you have right now?? Are you serious? The wealthy and obviously the very poor/uninsured (such as the illegal aliens) will benefit from this by receiving cheaper care, but the middle class will be PAYING for EVERYBODY (the rich and the poor). I really like the middle class because I was raised in a middle class family and to be honest, you guys have been sorely abused for almost a century. I may be wealthy now but I would never want to take advantage of you guys. I just can't understand why you constantly want something that is worse for you and you end up paying the bill for it. I understand that politicians want to misinform you (the dirty b@$tards that they are) but you have to understand that most politicians are in the top 1% wealth class. The abuse on the middle class has to stop, it really does. It saddens each time the middle-class is fooled into this stuff. You want to add a new tax when you are already burdened by heavy taxes already, I just don't understand. You have been paying your health insurance premiums and now will be paying for everyone else. The poor and uninsured will also pay but they weren't paying ANY health care insurance before and you will subsidizing their health care with your own money. Before this, hospitals would have to eat some of the costs of the uninsured, now it will be the middle class paying for those costs.
Last edited by evilnewbie; 11-07-2007 at 05:40 PM..
Interestly enough I read a study last year comparing the health of the United States and the United Kingdom. In it it stated that the U.S. spends approx. $5274 per person, per year, on health care and the United Kingdom spends $2164. The result was that the US is less healthy than the UK population.
In terms of waiting lists and dirty hospitals, I don't think that is only prevelant in the UK, it does exist here as well. Especially for a highly recommended physician. My husband was on a waiting list to see an well renowned physician for a little over 5 months. In addition, there are many hospitals all over the US that you will find filthy
Attach Mexico to the southern coast of the UK. That'll fluff up their costs considerably.
Tell you what, I have had 2 operations in Mexico. Excellent service and care, at a fraction of the cost. Go down to a border town on the weekend and you will see any hospital or dentist office flooded with gringos to get worked on. It is called medical tourism and is a growing trend, up to half a million Americans each year travel outside the US to get needed health care they could not otherwise afford.
The NHS has monstrous waiting times, is full of incompetent GPs willing to dismiss your healthcare complaints or fob you off on someone else, is top-heavy on management, is inefficient, the hospitals are filthy, and overall I was not confident that I was being diagnosed correctly with anything since they run very few tests.
To give you an idea of the waiting times...I waited six months to see a urologist and eight months to see a gynecologist. I had been on the waiting list again for the gynecologist for 10 months when I left the UK earlier this year.
I knew a guy who had been waiting for 2.5 years to see an orthopedic surgeon.
What a nightmare.
I have also read that most countries ('supposedly not Canada) with national health care have a two-tiered system, which means that, if you want shorter waits and more individual care, you pay extra.
A friend of mine, on a trip in Canada, had some small thing happen to her, dropped into the nearest doctor. He treated her and would not accept payment. No problem.
I believe that the Canadian system does not cover teeth, eyeglasses, or drugs.
Maybe we will do this in smaller increments over time.
I hate to pay those insurance companies.
Countries with UHC also tend to have lower infant mortality rates, more visits to the doctor per person, lower child/newborn mortality, longer "healthy lifespans," and not have half of their bankruptcies coming from medical costs.
Yet there's plenty of people in this country who will insist that those reasons are not valid enough to change over to universal health care.
17 years ago I went to a doctor in the UK... several times. Waiting times were reasonable: only a few weeks. This was around 1990 or so. The hospitals were clean, if not bright and shiny. I found no faults with the healthcare I got.
But for many illnesses, such as strep throat, you don't want to wait as much as a week to see a doctor.
17 years ago I went to a doctor in the UK... several times. Waiting times were reasonable: only a few weeks. This was around 1990 or so. The hospitals were clean, if not bright and shiny. I found no faults with the healthcare I got.
Yet the UK cannot afford to keep hospitals open. The less hospitals available, the less service.
I don't get you guys. You are basically paying for socialized medicine as it is already with your health care premiums. Do you realize this at all?? With socialized medicine, you are NOT paying just for your own but YOU pay for people who don't have health insurance. That's right, you are paying yours + a percentage of everyone else. We have a form of socialized medicine already where it is paid directly to the government... its called Medicare and Medicaid. That's the type of medicine you can expect to get in socialized medicine with the exception that YOU are paying MORE not LESS. It changes nothing but increasing what YOU pay already by having to pay for OTHER PEOPLE'S health care expenses who are not paying for their own health care expenses. You pay your own health care premiums and everyone else's through the health care tax in a socialized medicine program. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS? Honestly, I don't see you getting quality care as you are TREATED more as a customer than a patient. That is a reason why most socialized health care plans also have a PRIVATE SECTOR. That's what we have now, private hospitals except to get into it you have to pay MORE (i.e. ANOTHER insurance premium). So not only are you paying for your current insurance premium + a percent of everyone else's health care costs + another private insurance plan for basically WHAT YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW! I don't understand you guys, you WANT to pay MORE for the what you have right now?? Are you serious? The wealthy and obviously the very poor/uninsured (such as the illegal aliens) will benefit from this by receiving cheaper care, but the middle class will be PAYING for EVERYBODY (the rich and the poor). I really like the middle class because I was raised in a middle class family and to be honest, you guys have been sorely abused for almost a century. I may be wealthy now but I would never want to take advantage of you guys. I just can't understand why you constantly want something that is worse for you and you end up paying the bill for it. I understand that politicians want to misinform you (the dirty b@$tards that they are) but you have to understand that most politicians are in the top 1% wealth class. The abuse on the middle class has to stop, it really does. It saddens each time the middle-class is fooled into this stuff. You want to add a new tax when you are already burdened by heavy taxes already, I just don't understand. You have been paying your health insurance premiums and now will be paying for everyone else. The poor and uninsured will also pay but they weren't paying ANY health care insurance before and you will subsidizing their health care with your own money. Before this, hospitals would have to eat some of the costs of the uninsured, now it will be the middle class paying for those costs.
Well, your screed doesn't explain why health care costs are lower in countries with universal health care.
And what do you do with poor and ill people who can't pay for their medical care? Just let them die in the streets from their illnesses because they have no right to health care because they can't pay for it? If so, then you got another controversy as to how to come up with the money to bury them.
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