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Health Care: America versus the UK

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    SuzyCreamcheese wrote: »
    and if you lived in the US there would be a good chance you wouldnt even be able to afford to find out what was wrong with you at all

    Kinda puts our homeopathy debate into the shade a bit. I'd certainly rather fund everything including homeopathy than live in America when it comes to healthcare.

    In America, do they not have some kind of national health insurance scheme as well?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yeah they have medicaid but you have to be really poor to access it, so basically if you have any money at all, youre not entitled (i think)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    From what I've heard from some Americans, the worst thing is the way they've linked insurance to employers. I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with that.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Lisa's got braces. DENTAL PLAN. Lisa's got braces. DENTAL PLAN!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did some looking into this a bit back as I was looking to move to NYC. Working freelance brings big problems when it comes to getting medical insurance, if I recall...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm With Stupid wrote: »
    From what I've heard from some Americans, the worst thing is the way they've linked insurance to employers. I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with that.

    Employers contribute towards health insurance and the government pays the remainder, around 60% of it.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm With Stupid wrote: »
    Kinda puts our homeopathy debate into the shade a bit. I'd certainly rather fund everything including homeopathy than live in America when it comes to healthcare.

    In America, do they not have some kind of national health insurance scheme as well?

    your wrong. if i was poor and got medacaid all i would be able to afford were my perscriptions, it would be perscriptions or food if i had medacaid. they have no national health insurance, im an american citizen, and i don't have health insurance. there are no laws that enforce any insurance companies to insure disabled people, none do.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ah, so now no one wants to explain what their experiences with healthcare are?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    dmdsexgod wrote: »
    ah, so now no one wants to explain what their experiences with healthcare are?

    mine are pretty good, i see my gp within a week of making an appointment, i got a ultrasound to check for testicular cancer within 4days

    thankfulyl i had nothing so i'm fine

    everyone has had the 3hour a&e wait, but that's for non dangerous problem, in regards to acute emergency care for whole population, this country is amazing
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    in america or the uk? or other?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yerascrote wrote: »
    Lisa's got braces. DENTAL PLAN. Lisa's got braces. DENTAL PLAN!


    :lol:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    this is not pertaining to the subject.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Health care experiences
    dmdsexgod wrote: »
    ah, so now no one wants to explain what their experiences with healthcare are?

    Under the assumption that you're talking about a public health care system, I have good experiences with the Norwegian health care system, however, I have had none experiences with serious diseases like cancer etc...

    But when I broke my arm about ten years ago, there was no waiting time at all, and physio-therapy to retrain muscles was free.
    Also have had good experiences with making general doctor appointments, by most I had to wait a few weeks.

    Also tried going to the Doc in britain when being an exchange student. There was actually a GP just outside the student residents, as far as I remember, I had to wait a week or so for the appointment.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yes to compare countries as america has no public health care system.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think at least most European contries have some kind of public health care system. So dmdsexgod, if you're soon achieving british citizenship (from the EU thread I made), you might have more options :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ill try to find the best european country for healthcare (any of them is better than america) and obtain citizenship in that country.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Where do you live now dmd? You'll probably have to live in that country for a while before being entitled to a citizenship. But I don't think it matters too much where in terms of health care, at least the western european countries are generally reasonably good at that.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i live in america. and from articles ive read on healthcare that are written in america, western european healthcare is the best healthcare.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Might be a good option to apply for work in Europe? If you're lucky and are able to achieve sort of "foreign worker" status you might be entitled to health care in that country even without a citizenship, depending on the agreement. I'd certainly look into the rules.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    thats what im going to do precisely, but for now lets discuss healthcare in each of our countries.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As a note, there are in fact a private health sector in Norway, in addition to the public health sector. These privatists have given the the rise to numerous debates here, with arguments that it will give rich people the opportunity to buy themselves out of the queue. However, many of the private institutions have an agreement with the public health care system thus giving all patients more fredoom to choose where to carry out some procedure.

    For me, this was really a good option. Instead of waiting for several months before a public hospital could take me in, I waited two weeks for the private one. And the price remained the same, because of the agreement. Good stuff.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    but in america this is what happened even if you are rich you can't afford healthcare without insurance if you have a physical disability.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    T-Kay wrote: »
    As a note, there are in fact a private health sector in Norway, in addition to the public health sector. These privatists have given the the rise to numerous debates here, with arguments that it will give rich people the opportunity to buy themselves out of the queue. However, many of the private institutions have an agreement with the public health care system thus giving all patients more fredoom to choose where to carry out some procedure.

    For me, this was really a good option. Instead of waiting for several months before a public hospital could take me in, I waited two weeks for the private one. And the price remained the same, because of the agreement. Good stuff.
    What sort of costs did you face? Was it partly funded by the government?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I was looking into the Japanese one, because hopefully that'll be mine pretty soon. You have to contribute either to private insurance, which is heavily regulated, or the Japanese National Health Insurance, if you work over 29.5 hours (I think under that, you're still entitled to treatment, but you don't have to pay contributions to it). It's something like 5% of your salary, and then you have to contribute to the costs of any treatment, which apparently is an average of a third of any costs (presumably for really expensive procedures, you don't have to pay as much). I don't know exactly how it works though, and anyway, I've been recommended to get travel insurance instead because it covers more for a foreigner (including possessions).
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »
    What sort of costs did you face? Was it partly funded by the government?

    Was the same small administrative fee as I would have paid if I had decided to wait in the queue in a public hospital :)
    As long as you see a doctor and then possibly a specialist within the public health care system first to get a diagnose, then you're allowed to carry out the procedure in public hospitals or private hospitals with an agreement with the public health care system for that particular procedure.

    You can off course, go directly to a private hospital, omitting the public part entirely, but then you would have to pay all costs by yourself.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    well all healthcare systems are good. we are trying to establish which healthcare system is the best.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Being as we dont have a representative from each country, thats a bit of a tall order to find out, and im sure its pretty subjective too
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    of people in different countries that are on this site. what are their experiences with their healthcare system? how have they been treated by the medical staff in their healthcare system? and anything else pertaining to the subject.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    SuzyCreamcheese wrote: »
    Being as we dont have a representative from each country, thats a bit of a tall order to find out, and im sure its pretty subjective too

    And best at what? Cancer? preventative medicine? efficient use of resources? equality?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    and being that each ward in one hospital can be vastly different, let alone each hospital, let alone each city, let alone each country................
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