British Expatriate Network

This happened here when we did have insurance.


Initially I hated the system here. I still think it's ridiculously expensive, but at least everything is available. You don't hear of fundraisers to send a sick child to Britain for a treatment they can't get here.

It's virtually impossible to get appointments..... until you learn the system, then it's no more tricky than the UK. They do a whole truckload of seemingly unnecessry tests, but then again who knows what changes those baselines may highlight in the future? Beest's immigration x-ray showed an enlarged thyroid. He had a whole load of tests and the advice was to "whip it out, why not?" :roll: We declined, drugs seemed to make no difference, but having those tests and keeping having them gave a baseline to know when it was time to reasses. I think in the UK we might have been "signed off" after the first battery of tests. Or maybe not.

Still can't decide which to vote for... :lol:

I think I prefer the care here, but the insurance system there. )

Cheat!

That is a very good article dianey.

In the Times on Sunday it talked of a women, a housewife, in her 60's married for 40 years then her husband divorced her at Chritmas a few years ago .The alimony was $400 per month for 4 years (I think).The divorce judge told her to get a job roll
After her divorce her former husbands medical insurance was cut - off!!I am sure that does not happen in the National Health systems.

Bob Herbert in the Times 1/1/06 had a column on how the Republican Party is cutting many billions from medicade programs for low income people,the elderly and college students and their families and raising premiums and co-payments.He said this will cause many to pass on healthcare they need ."Some will die"he wrote.

My take on this one

We are not in a position to be able to afford health insurance, and as I have had to rely on medication in the past, this can make life very difficult at times.
I'm female, over 50, have arthritis and a back problem, and suffer occasionally from depression.

Hopefully we can work something out over the coming months and get some kind of insurance in place. But then there is always the co-pay thing. when I left the UK it was 6.5 GBP per item on a prescription. Last time I needed medication over here it cost not far off $300.

Give me the NHS any day of the week.

I got all the jabs for Immigration through a local "Help The Po' Folks" clinic, Mrs Rude had to see a gyno there a couple of times too. There was no way she could afford insurance tending bar and that was the only place that would take me. In fact, that was the only place back in Wichita that dealt with poor folks and illegals.

/with Pilgrim on the Yorkshiremen sketch
//I was so po' I couldn't afford the or

It's a funny system. Mostly no there isn't. It's a single tier system. But despite Canadians talking about a publicly funded health care system and a "universal" health care system, in fact it's not quite.

Drugs are not included in your government health plan. The government subsidises drugs to some extent so that they are a litttle cheaper than in the states, but you either have to be insured for drugs or.....pay full price for them.

Dentistry is not included. It's almost all private. So you do have to get insurance for that. And private insurance can pay for odd things like a semi-private room in a hospital too.....

Almost everything else though is in the public one-tier system.

Haven't had to use UK health care for a while but, when I did last use it, I didn't think it was too bad. But then I could get on the plane and go back home soon after using it. Maybe brits who live all the time over in the Uk would have different stories.

kim

I think you all know what i voted for as ive lived here for over 20 years and am now on medicare .

When i consider the cost i paid about the same ( when i was working ) for health insurance here as i paid in the uk .and had a copay ,

its my opinion that as you get older the health care in US is far superior to anything available under the HNS if you have extra private insurance as was pointed out in a earlier post its a differant story .

when i was diagnosed with cancer i s=was sent to a specialist straight away ( next morning )and because the xondition was treated asap I servived ,i could ,nt garrantee i would still be around had i been resident in UK . treatment is severly resticted to you when you reach a certain age and other/younger patients are given priority over you .ive never waited for any treatment here in the US so i must say for me personally the US system is the best ,its no good telling me that a perticular treatment in UK is FREE if its not available to me .

Its like the salesman who says those $3000 watches are on sale for $200 but i dont have any left what good is that to me ???

Of course everbody makes up there minds according to thier own experiances .personal or other wise .


Not everybody has insurance thats true and to my mind it should,nt be connected to your employer just like car insurance there should be covered offered by competing insurance companies and you get to choice which one you prefer .

In the UK you dont have a choice unless you buy private insurance but then you still have the MANDATED NH stamp deducted from your salary /wages .

Thats where the discrimination part comes in much the same in the UK as here in the US if you have the cash ?/private insurance coverage you get more than those who dont



Pretty much everything has been said about those who dont have health insurance and like some other states no one here in Texas is turned away from a * govt /state funded hospital/care center *becuase they dont have insurance they are not left to die, medical treatment not covered by insurance or co.pay is divided up into the bills of those of us who have insurance .
Just like the loss in any company its recaptured by increasing the cost of the product/service . so we all pay in the end .






As has been said on this thread this subject complicated and not a easy subject to decide for or againt on the issuesdiffernat states have differant rules regarding those without insurance and differant employers offers so many varied and wildly ranging in price to there employees its hard to generalize about anything or compare the UK health care to the many health programes here .


.UK health program is * one size fits all * take it or leave it .

US health programes are much more personal and adaptable to the individual .



Niether system is perfect and proberly never will be .

Some folks in the US fall between the cracks and health care insurance is either to expensive or not available to them and the drugs are expensive (i agree on that )

On paper everyone in the UK is eligible for govt mandated health care but special treatments are sometimes not available for certian age groups OLDER because of restictions mandated by suits in parlament .
What is the benefit of FREE care if its not available???


I have just joined medicare part *d * which will somewhat decrease the amount I pay for drugs each and every year to keep this body* on the road *

They might be * free * in the UK but would they be available for me ???/



There is a saying ..you only get what you pay for and sometimes not even that .



The NHS is badly managed getting worse and i see no sign that it will ever improve .

The PRIVATE system in US is flawed but with time and some dedication by concerned citizens that transends>>> POLITICS <<<<it can and will be improved



Thats my dream anyway and sometimes dreams come true .

NOTE.

The word *free * in this post is used cus almost everyone when talking about UK health care discribes it as being* free* which of course it isnt

smile

John A
In fairness, if you have been here over 20 years, how do you know what the NHS is like today? What direct experience do you have?

I'm glad you don't have to wait for treatment. I've twice needed to see my PCP here, on both occasions I was informed it would be a six week wait for an appointment. I was told if I needed to see a doctor sooner to go to the emergency room.
Quite aside from this being an attrociaous waste of ER resources, there was a $100 deductible for going to the ER if you were ultimately not admitted. I went without. So, what point having insurance if you can't see a doctor?
Sometimes in the UK I had to wait to see a GP, but personally I never waited more than a couple of days and most often got an appointment either that evening or the following morning. Again this is just personal experience and no at all reflective of general experience.

We all expect much more of the health system and because of the availability of modern diagnosis, medicine and treatment, more money is needed to sustain it.

Both the US and the UK systems are underfunded. In the US it affects the uninsured and mainly the poor. In the UK everyone eventually gets treated ( even if it's too late).

We hear a lot about waiting times for hip and knee replacements. I know for a fact that there is a shortage of doctors that perform this manually difficult procedure. But it's not life threatening.

Many people that are new to an area they move to cannot find a GP and also have to wait longer to see a specialist.
The medical proffession is not one that attracts as many people as we need, so we shall continue to see this inequity in treatment under ALL Health Systems.

I have only required urgent medical treatment once in my life. And like John it was for Cancer. From diagnosis to final treatment took 4 weeks. My wife recently has had to be hospitalized and got extremely good attention. I am quite happy with our Health care in Ontario. And no it isn't free John, but I know that I shall never have to mortgage my home to pay for treatment.

Just like to add this disturbing fact of the US Health Care System.

Every 30 seconds in the United States, someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. Time is running out. A broken health care system is bankrupting families across this country.

The writer is a law professor at Harvard University.

http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9447-2005Feb8.html

The Times had an article this week on the poor treatment of diabetes in the USA.It mentioned an insurance company that refused to pay a diabetic a $150 bill for a podiatrist for foot care that would have helped him, but would cover the cost of amputations of his toes up to $30,000!!! shock

In the USA medical treatment is a profit making business and heaven help you when you get on to that medical $$$$conveyor.

The in thing now for those with a medical problem and money in the US is for them to take a nurse or doctor along with them to all doctor's visits and be in attendance should they be hospitalised to give an opinion on the medical treatment to be recieved(or not).

If you have no money you may in time get some treatment, but you will aso get those bills and they follow you around.

What we need in the US is single payer national health insurance for all similar to Medicare(which on the whole runs very well) or similar insurance as the Veterans get. My doctor who is a Vet doctor says it is very good.

Why is it that a person with another countries passport living in the USA can get cheaper medical insurance while living here than can a US citizen???

Most Americans have their head in the sand about this subject, they do not seem to want to think about it.
Why I will never know.