Socialist healthcare in the real world

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This is an NHS building in northern England. It looks as old inside as it does on the outside. A literal world war two building.

I once waited 2 & a half hours with a shattered, broken wrist before being seen to. I literally just sat there in 2007 with my wrist hanging off my arm whilst a bumbling healthcare system gave me pain relief, whilst someone was ready to operate on my wrist.

Moral of the story: you get what you pay for.

Rationed healthcare with everyone getting a piece of the figurative healthcare pie - even people who pay nothing into the system, means that educated and/or hard working citizens bear the burden, by paying as much in taxes/reduced wages as they would for decent healthcare.

I would rather go private, and I practice what I preach. I have done so many times for health issues, even on a low income.

Oh, and there are propaganda billboards everywhere in this hospital, assuring you that you are receiving top-notch care.

But you really are not.

I'd have to agree:

You do get what you paid for, usually.

have a conversation with some family in the US, ruined by some family member's medical bill.isten to the anecdote of the woman with open leg fracture screaming for no one to call an ambulance because she can't afford it. Speak to a doctor who's 200.000 Dollars in debt after college and needs to charge horrenduous fees. Stop whining about two and a half hours on painkillers before surgery.

A portion of the population here in the US holds up the NHS as a standard to aspire to, a method to model, a cure for what ails healthcare in the US.

Meanwhile a number of UK folks in the several health support group forums I've been in, on Tumblr, and on Facebook when I was on it from 2009 to 2015, have a rather different take on the thing.

So people who are too poor to pay in should just be refused medical treatment?

The point, really, is that people who can afford private healthcare have it better----whether they be in the US, the UK, or anywhere.

There are many people who go bankrupt in the US---owing to them not having health insurance. This sort of thing, of course, doesn't happen in most "first world" countries. There are people who are left to die because of lack of health insurance.

I wish we had a single-payer system here in the US. It would probably suck for many of us----but it would suck LESS because we wouldn't have to worry that hiring an ambulance would cost somebody at least a week's wages.

I have only ever received top class service from the NHS. My dad is currently in hospital in a critical ward, the way he has been looked after, the way the family have been dealt with etc is just fantastic.

The NHS is struggling for nurses right now as there has been an exodus since 2016, but my experiences of it before and since then have been first class

I've heard bad things about the NHS and about Quebec's health care system for mental health. My recent experiences in Ontario haven't been too bad. Perhaps the issue isn't related to public healthcare systems and instead is driven by other factors.

around 10 years ago or so the NHS was rated as the best value for money healthcare in X (x being europe? the west? I honestly don't remember but it was significant).

Under-funding since then has obviously been a huge and well documented problem