NationalHealthTruths.org
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National Health Service Users : US Expat Experiences (Con't - page 2)
Since the first half of October 2009, we began gathering testimonials about global health care models. Scroll through these pages to read US expat experiences of national health services around the world as well as observations and opinions by other individuals with direct experience of international health care systems.
We welcome all comments about your experiences with national health systems - both positive and negative. Our goal is to provide a platform to exchange experiences, information and facts that will then allow us to be able to engage in a real debate about improving healthcare in America.
The opinions expressed in these testimonials are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NationalHealthTruths.org. |
I started my medical studies in 1951, just after the NHS started on a particular day in 1948.
It may be interesting to note that the event was marked in The Times only by a paragraph on an inside page stating that the NHS had started without any problems.
The reason was that the hospitals had remained the same, the doctors were the same ones etc. There was, in fact, no great change at all and the only perceptible difference was the way payment was administered. Of course things did change in time, but it was the result of changes in medicine that had to be absorbed more than anything else. In some instances this was done well, in others less so. The other national services in France, Germany and so on were also the formalization of what was in place.
The Americans should avoid a revolution as that invariably fails. They should base themselves on what they have and are used to rather than invent or copy others. In fact they are closer to the Swiss than other European ones. If they simply extend Private Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans and existing HMO's so that everyone is covered no one would notice the difference. Payment systems can gradually be worked out and modified so that no one pays too much and costs are assessed.
- Dr. E.D., retired Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, London (UK)
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I am an American citizen and have been living in the U.K. for over twenty years. My child was born under the caring and watchful service of the NHS. My prenatal monitoring, ultrasounds, and birth, which included a local team of midwives, I saw on a regular basis throughout my pregnancy. The day I went into labour, one of the midwifes was sent to our home to monitor my progress. She stayed with me throughout the day, returning the next morning. She accompanied us to the hospital where it became apparent that I would have to have the baby there. She was still there 18 hours later with both the anesthetist and the doctor, who performed the emergency c-section, and she stayed with me until I was safely tucked up on the ward. I spent the next 5 days in the hospital. The professional standard of my post natal care (including medication) was excellent. The food was pretty awful, but they did not object to my husband bringing in takeaways, and I didn’t pay a penny. Can you imagine how much this would have cost in a U.S. hospital? My husband and I are both freelance artists; no salaries, no health insurance. We would not have been able to afford to have a child in the U.S. system. The NHS never made any monetary demand upon us. Financial reparations within the U.S. system as it is, would have taken us years. Perhaps we would have decided not to have a child. Health should be a right, not a privilege. I fully support the US Government's plans to have a serious debate which leads to redressing and reforming this situation.
- LC, aged 49, London (UK), 22 year user of Britain's NHS, originally from Pennsylvania |
In the middle of a devastating divorce, teaching three part-time jobs at colleges, minimum pay, no benefits, no vacation, no health-insurance... Post Trauma shock syndrome... Where was I to go but under the bridge with my books, paintings and piano? Luckily, my Dutch family sent my youngest sister from one day to the next to "bring me back alive". Once back in Holland, I immediately was given the medical attention I needed, and for as long as I needed it (years). I also received a monthly "welfare" check because by Dutch constitution, everyone is entitled to a roof, food and health care. I was told to stop worrying about "being responsible and making my own living", but to take the time and energy to get better. Only then would I be able to be of any value to my children, people, etc.
Ever since 1995 I have been screaming about the need for national health care in the USA. It is a human rights issue. It is IMMORAL that this is not in place.
- Margaret, aged 63 , 13 year user of Holland's national health system, formally from Utah
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My husband, an American, fell sick while living in Scotland. As an American, he could make an appointment with a local GP and pay £40 for the visit. He was seen by the GP on a Monday, the very next day he was seeing a specialist at the local hospital. Within hours he was diagnosed with an aggressively advancing phase two cancer. By the Thursday of the same week, he was scheduled for the offended tumor to be surgically removed. Before he was operated on, a gentleman from the hospital admin department came to see him and graciously pointed out that as he had been living in the UK for the appropriated amount of time and was legally entitled to be here, he would be fully covered by the NHS. Chemotherapy followed shortly thereafter and a full recovery was eventually attained. As we lived in the Scottish Highlands and were considered 'remote villagers', the Scottish NHS also paid for 30% of my gas for driving him to and from the hospital and offered us both free massages, psychotherapy and a specialist B&B centre to stay in catering for carers of cancer patients! Since moving to London, he is seen once a year by a oncology department and checked up on. Apart from paying the original GP £40, he was not charged a penny. The NHS saved my husband's life. Thank you NHS, you are my hero!
- M. Gilchrist, London (UK), lifetime user of Britain's NHS, a British subject married to a US national from New York |
| Click on to read more experiences: page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 |
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