A tale of 2 sickbeds: Healthcare in UK vs. US

I got catastrophically ill when I was younger with a brain tumour which was compared to various citrus fruits.
The NHS has done and continue to do me proud with excellent care, specialist treatment, including experimental, money to help me get to London to visit the specialist, a variety of expensive cancer drugs for free (I'm diabetic so I don't pay prescription charges) a home help to check up on me when I was really bad, equipment to use at home so I didn't need to stay in hospital, regular routine follow ups, CAT scans, MRIs etc, counseling to help me deal with all of it (it was fairly traumatic), I also claimed benefits whilst I couldn't work to help pay bills.

I'm sure that my life has cost the NHS many thousands, maybe even £100,000s which I'm positive I will never earn enough to pay back in tax, and all the time it was happening, not a form, not a question, not a worry. Just everything taken care of.  Even with insurance in the US I would not have got approved for experimental treatment and the co-pays on my drugs, MRIs (sometimes several in a week) , radiation therapy, hospital stays, the 4-5 times I had fits/seizures and was taken in an ambulance to hospital, would have been completely unaffordable (at 18 with very limited income).

I have been without health insurance for the last 5 years, the last time I went to the doctors was with a serious case of pneumonia complicated by a sinus infection... I also have other health issues because I just can't go to a doctor can't afford it, so if it isn't life threatening I just... can't go, they want you to prepay if it isn't life threatening...

I don't even want to start whining about my most likely carpel tunnel syndrome  and massive constant pain in my right ring finger complicated by a fan injury when I was 18 that severed the main nerve in my pinky and the tendon in my middle finger... hehe OK so I started to whine!

I dunno what I am gonna do about it when I get to the UK cause I feel guilty about landing then hitting up the NHS that I haven't paid into with something like that =(

I dunno what I am gonna do about it when I get to the UK cause I feel guilty about landing then hitting up the NHS that I haven't paid into with something like that =(

Well, I have been paying taxes here for the past three years, and your getting healthcare on the NHS benefits me as well as the people in the UK who have been paying taxes for much longer.

Because when your health is properly cared for you can be a more productive member of society, which benefits everyone in the long run.

Because when your health is properly cared for you can be a more productive member of society, which benefits everyone in the long run.

Hear Hear!  Absolutely right, Sweetpeach.  I could give you a similar story to Mary Kate's regarding DD, who is receiving excellent care (at the Royal Free) for cancer.  I get tired of American friends saying why don't you bring her over to get treated here.  I always say its because she wouldn't be covered on my insurance and I'm perfectly satisfied with the treatment she is getting in the UK.  OK, maybe the waiting room is a tad scruffy and overcrowded but at the end of the day, isn't it the actual consultants and the treatment they advise that matters?

thanks you guys! and yeah I guess you are right... will figure it out when I get over there and I do want to be a productive member of society (when the law allows) =)

I had the carpal tunnel op in my left hand when I was 16, it was brilliant, you're awake through the whole thing, and I'm creepy so I wanted to watch you can see and sort of feel the needle but no pain, whole thing was about an hour then bandaged up, back home, had  a couple days of work then back to work (albeit without being able to use that hand) and it's been great ever since, no more tingliness and weird pain and I have a cool scar!

I have to say that when I lived in the US I always had health insurance except for a 3 month period when I changed jobs in 2006, however that doesn't mean that I could afford to see a doctor when I needed to. Combined with the cost of the copayment to the doctor ($20 and the cost of any prescriptions $10-up depending if I could get generic or not and how many of them there were) I often just suffered through, basically I was living paycheck to paycheck and just had enough to exist on. I never could have had a baby in the US I made too much money for Medi-Cal/Medicaid but had too many expenses to be able to pay the 20% to the hospital to cover a birth.

Contrast that we had our daughter and paid nothing directly out of pocket and yesterday dd and I went to the GP as I have tonsillitis and she is 19 weeks and has a cold. I ended up with 2 prescriptions and paid absolutley nothing. DH likes to remind me that he pays ALOT in taxes, I just tell him that in that case we best use it rather than ignore our health. So in some cases, in non emergent ones particularly, you might have to wait but it's better than no healthcare at all.

Nice to hear a first hand experience MaryKate =) I will go get it checked out when I can and see where it goes. It might not be just carpel tunnel tho cause of the fan incident blah blah. I will go get it seen to tho cause I don't know how much longer I can deal with the pain. thank goodness for finding and buying some wristies... they are basically fingerless gloves, cause cold is a killer for the pain =( hehe but I love my wristies!!!

As I have shared before...I am much happier with NHS than the HMO I had in the US. If that HMO had done an ultra-sound when I was having my gall stone attacks instead of just prescribing me powerful pain-killers then I could have had a simple laproscopic procedure and been fine in days. Instead NHS had to do major surgery. So for my two-cents...even profit driven private healthcare in the US is lacking.

Of course I will say that noone is chronically ill in our family...either in the US or UK.

And except for a few things, an HMO is much better than a PPO because it will at least cover your pre-existing. If you were ever sick, you are doomed in the US. Check out my thread in this section about our experiences.