NationalHealthTruths.org
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The Forum: Tell It Like It Is
Americans living in the United Kingdom and other European countries have been surprised to see the national health services in their host countries criticised so harshly in the US. While the system is far from perfect, we recognize that our fellow citizens at home are being misled and manipulated by political forces.
This website provides the basis for a forum for discussion and productive debate about Healthcare Reform in the USA, giving people a place where they can post their experiences - both good and bad - with various national health systems across the world.
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Launched by two Americans who have lived and worked overseas for nearly 20 years, NationalHealthTruths.org suggests that there is infinitely more to be learned from honest accounts of people with direct experiences using health care systems around the world than from politicized accounts in the American mainstream media. Although we have our own personal political views, NationalHealthTruths.org is not affliliated with any single political party.
This website provides a platform to exchange information with our friends, families, colleagues and compatriots about our direct experiences living with and using different health care systems. Then, we hope to engage in real debate about improving healthcare in America. |
Useful links:
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What Can You Do To
Promote the
Factual Debate
on Health Care Reform?
- Contribute your experiences directly to the NationalHealthTruths.org bulletin board.
- Forward our web link to other US citizens with experience living outside the country and encourage them to participate.
- Send our web link to Americans living in the US.
- Write your representatives in the House and Senate to tell them your views about Healthcare.
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National Health Service Users : US Expat Experiences
Large expatriate communities are a natural consequence of globalization.
In 2006, the US State Department estimated that nearly 6 million Americans live abroad.
We live on the frontline where American commerce and culture meets the rest of the world on their home turf. It’s a simple truth to acknowledge that there is much we can learn from living abroad, and the flow of information moves in both directions.
We begin by inviting our friends, families and colleagues living outside the USA to use our bulletin board form to write about their healthcare experiences. Then forward the link to other American expats. Once we have gathered a significant number of direct experiences to convey, we will direct this information to the folks back home, hoping to introduce some international perspectives to the “town hall” format.
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Our Experiences With National Health Systems |
I have lived in the UK and benefitted from using the NHS for 18 years. In that time, my family and I have received a very high standard of regular treatment from the two NHS general practices that we have been associated with since living in this country. We always have been able to make appointments to see the GP of our choice within a week's notice, or emergency appointments on the day with any of the available (and equally competent) doctors in the practice. In addition, I have given birth to two children in NHS hospitals, received excellent pre-natal and post-natal treatment for those pregnancies and had top-notch investigations into the causes of several miscarriages that I had suffered. All that treatment was carried out by the NHS at no cost!
We also have a private health insurance policy through my husband's business that allows us to see private specialists once we have been referred to them by our GP and to stay in private hospitals, if we so choose. These specialist doctors also see NHS patients, but by going private, we have the benefit of seeing a specialist within a matter of days, rather than having to wait several weeks for non-life threatening issues. All in all, the NHS has been a fantastic resource to our family and we feel so fortunate to be able to use it.
- K.F., aged 48, London (UK), 18 year user of Britain's NHS, originally from California |
This summer, my elderly mother needed hospital care in the USA. She was admitted on a Friday to a world renowned medical center. All the nurses on her floor were "temps" because the regular staff were off for the weekend. A full 24 hours passed before she was even given water. She was never given any of the regular medication which she takes daily (for blood pressure, glaucoma, high cholesterol, even baby aspirin to prevent stroke) despite the fact that a cadre of family members stayed with her constantly, and persistently asked the nursing staff for their help. She was never visited by her admitting GP. Instead they monitored her progress by an on-line link, and assumed - wrongly - that she was fine. She was so angry by the fourth day, she insisted on being released and went home.
At the same time, my father-in-law, who is English, suddenly fell ill in London. My partner (his son) took him to our local NHS hospital. He was admitted to an intensive care unit and looked after as if he were a prince. We discovered that he had several serious conditions which together posed a grave threat to his life, and from the outset we received compassionate counselling from the medical team. He was given a host of treatments, including chemotherapy, and after about 6 weeks in intensive care, his condition seemed to improve, but just briefly. My partner visited his father in shifts throughout the day, and came to know the team of doctors and nurses in the unit. They would tell us how he'd slept that night, or if he'd been in a particularly good (or bad) mood. When things turned again for the worse (and my partner was on his own because the kids and I were with my mother in the US) the nursing staff made sure that he had the support of friends. They promised to look after my father in law after visiting hours and, in fact, one of the nurses sat with him, holding his hand the night he died. Even after 8 weeks in intensive care, there was never a question of whether or not we could pay for this service, or whether or not we had adequate coverage so that it could be offered. There were questions about how long we could and should continue artificial life support, but these were dealt with simply, without fuss, so that we could cope with the enormity of the experience. We could not have asked for better care.
And now, even though I am (relatively) young and healthy, I find myself asking where I would like to be treated in my final days. If I had to choose today between the internationally recognized hospital where my mother was (mis)treated, and our local NHS trust, there is no question which I would prefer for myself as well as for my family.
- PK, aged 47, London (UK), 18 year user of Britain's NHS, originally from Pennsylvania
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| (Click here to read more experiences...) |
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