Paying For Surgery

[seagull_in_malaysia]

If people had health insurance then what difference would it make if the NHS wasn't free, surely all costs would be covered by insurance?

 

[Tricky Dicky]

America has the worst health care system in the world.

A very sweping statement and probably not true, but I guess it depends how you measure it. My brother is highly qualified and chooses to work there than the NHS.

To take my case I outlined earlier, it took 8 months to diagnose me having to arrange and wait for the scans. My brother said, that assuming I have the insurance, had I gone to his practise in North Carolina, all the scans and tests woud have been done immediately, in one day if possible.

Not that I'm complaining about my case, they did pretty well given the contraints and once it was diagnosed I got the treatment very quickly.

 

[RexCathedra]

If people had health insurance then what difference would it make if the NHS wasn't free, surely all costs would be covered by insurance?

It would be 1.5-3x more expensive for the person paying the premiums.
The two most expensive health care delivery systems in the OECD, US and Switzerland, have systems based on private insurance paying for care.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Once you start putting one person against each other that is the end of the NHS, you have to accept it for what it is and nobody is any more deserving than anyone else.

This.

 

[rouseytastic]

Like cycling up Ditchling Beacon?

Ha! Don't get me started!

 

[rouseytastic]

What are the chances that if we abandon the NHS, people will stop getting ill ?

America has the worst health care system in the world, we will find the money in this country, because it is the decent thing to do.

I absolutely agree. However my worry is that very people who subsidise the NHS through higher than usual taxes, the smokers and drinkers will be penalised further and eventually there will be a class system in operation where the rich get treated and the poor do not.

Take a low income family with 2 kids. Father used to work but was made redundant and they are struggling to put food on the table let alone pay 4 lots of some type of 'health insurance' imagine the stress if one if the kids was seriously ill.

It's very worrying times

 

[RexCathedra]

Having watched the introduction of tuition loans in the UK, I asked myself, "OK, what other American brainstorm will they adopt, in order to bollox up a perfectly OK existing social provision in the name of abstract economic theory and political ideology? Blow up the NHS?"

Should have gotten something down on the proposition at the bookie's....

 

[CheeseRolls]

A very sweping statement and probably not true, but I guess it depends how you measure it. My brother is highly qualified and chooses to work there than the NHS.

To take my case I outlined earlier, it took 8 months to diagnose me having to arrange and wait for the scans. My brother said, that assuming I have the insurance, had I gone to his practise in North Carolina, all the scans and tests woud have been done immediately, in one day if possible.

Not that I'm complaining about my case, they did pretty well given the contraints and once it was diagnosed I got the treatment very quickly.

For me that just highlights the difference between the quality of health care available, which in the case of the US, can be the best in the world and the provision of universal health care, which in the US is an absolute disgrace. There are cracks in our system and people do fall through sadly, by comparison the US system has gaping chasms, with not even basic health care for those who can not afford to pay. At the same time the spend per capita is one of the highest in the world. There are much better systems available in many European countries, that we could certainly learn from.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

For me that just highlights the difference between the quality of health care available, which in the case of the US, can be the best in the world and the provision of universal health care, which in the US is an absolute disgrace. There are cracks in our system and people do fall through sadly, by comparison the US system has gaping chasms, with not even basic health care for those who can not afford to pay. At the same time the spend per capita is one of the highest in the world. There are much better systems available in many European countries, that we could certainly learn from.

I may be wrong, but what my brother seemed to say.was that the rich and those in good jobs with insurance provided are obviously ok, the actual poor also get their treatment, the ones that don't are the people in jobs that don 't give insurance, i.e. The lower end jobs, and obviously they wouldn't be able to afford to pay for insurance themselves.

My brother flew in for my cancer op and was quite impressed with how I was treated, even if diagnosis took a while. At least my outcome seems to ve successful.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Once you start putting one person against each other that is the end of the NHS, you have to accept it for what it is and nobody is any more deserving than anyone else.

100% correct. I was listening to a radio programme last week, where a lady who had had type 1 diabetes since she was a child, was being judged by some as having had a lifestyle choice.

Leaving aside the "you can be treated but you can't" debate There IS the question of the whole funding of the NHS. Back when it was started people smoked, drank, were in full employment - and didn't always live to pick up their pension. Also in those days hospitals did little more than take out your appendix and deliver your babies. Even then the 'totally free at the point of delivery' model broke after a few years and prescription charges were introduced. Now with the size of population, life expectancy and all the treatments available ... well, what do we do? Simply saying "increase the public funding' isn't the full answer.

There are lots of treatments on the NHS that aren't because people are ill, such as boob jobs or sex change but then that brings mental health into the equation. Mental health care is the most neglected section of the NHS. We don't lock them up in institutions any more but a lot of ill people just do not get the care that they need.

If people had health insurance then what difference would it make if the NHS wasn't free, surely all costs would be covered by insurance?

There are massive get out clauses in insurance companies. My cousin took out maternity insurance but fell pregnant immediately that she tried. Her birthing costs weren't covered because she hadn't been insured for the correct amount of time (she was two weeks out or similar) which cost her thousands of dollars.
Another situation recently was someone dying of liver cancer in their 40's where their insurance was invalid because they had drunk too much, so couldn't get any treatment. Their UK relative had to fly to the States to try and sort out some charity help to get them into a hospice type place to die with dignity.

 

[WATFORD zero]

With the increasingly ageing population, new treatments and drugs being developed constantly there is no doubt that the NHS faces a tough future.

I'm just not sure that taking money out of it to pay dividends to huge private companies which pay lower rates for the people doing the jobs, increase the awards to senior executives for their 'successes' and then pressurise government to allow more money to be taken out, is the way ahead.

 

[CheeseRolls]

I may be wrong, but what my brother seemed to say.was that the rich and those in good jobs with insurance provided are obviously ok, the actual poor also get their treatment, the ones that don't are the people in jobs that don 't give insurance, i.e. The lower end jobs, and obviously they wouldn't be able to afford to pay for insurance themselves.

My brother flew in for my cancer op and was quite impressed with how I was treated, even if diagnosis took a while. At least my outcome seems to ve successful.

My understanding is that free healthcare provision varies considerably from state to state. So we should both be careful about generalising.

Glad to hear things are progressing well for you.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Having watched the introduction of tuition loans in the UK, I asked myself, "OK, what other American brainstorm will they adopt, in order to bollox up a perfectly OK existing social provision in the name of abstract economic theory and political ideology? Blow up the NHS?"

Should have gotten something down on the proposition at the bookie's....

I don't see the problem behind tuition loans. They should, however, make various courses loan free.

There is probably enough money to make everything free, but the Richie Rich hide their money. There's probably enough money to give everyone clean drinking water, but the rich like being rich.