In Britain we’re used to hearing wacky stuff coming from the people, politicians and news media in the USA, but with the current brouhaha over healthcare reform this seems to have reached new extremes. Shouting? Screaming? Calling people ‘nazi’ and ‘communist’ – usually at the same time – someone clearly doesn’t want the debate to happen, and that’s a sad thing for any democracy. Much of this I was happy to watch with bemusement, but then the anti-reformers started using our NHS as an example of how ‘bad’ state provided healthcare is, and nothing could be further from the truth, they’re lying.
My personal experience of the US healthcare system is limited, in the three years I lived in Houston and worked in the UT Medical center I only needed to see a doctor once, but I had health insurance with work so off I went to the doctor nearest my apartment. And that’s where the good part ends. I was waiting to see the doctor for 3 hours. Three hours. When I finally got to see the doctor she was fine, but wanted to take a blood sample ‘just in case’ (I assume this was actually because of the 30 dollars or so that could then be charged to my insurance rather than any real need – I had a bad earache). So I then had another small wait for a nurse to take some blood. She used the needle like a javelin, I don’t bruise easily but ended up with a huge bruise and a sore arm for a week. Not very professional, unlike the times I’ve had blood taken in the NHS, which was easy and didn’t bruise much.
My only other contact with healthcare in the USA was walking though Hermann hospital in between a car park and work. And this I will say: US hospitals are clean and freshly painted. I’m not entirely sure how that equates to better healthcare but it looks good.
My best experience with the NHS resonates with comments by Stephen Amidon on salon.com, relating to childbirth. In 2003 our daughter was born 3 months premature, but the care at Glasgow’s Queen Mother’s hospital ICU was fantastic, right down to having us parents talk to a psychologist. The only problem I had was with one particular nurse that tended to take over from me whenever I tried to change a nappy or feed my daughter, because obviously men cannot be allowed to handle small babies. Prejudices of an older generation aside, I can’t fault the care we received.
My worst NHS experience was indirect, in the 1980’s my stepfather needed a triple heart bypass, and was denied it. Luckily a friend of the family paid to have it done privately and he enjoyed many more years of life.
There are two things I draw from my stepfather’s experience, firstly many of the worst NHS horror stories are historical, and stem from a time when right wing conservative government underfunded the NHS over a number of years – turns out underfunded public services don’t work as well as we’d like. The second and more important point is that a state funded healthcare can sit happily side by side with a private healthcare system. The UK doesn’t just have the NHS we have a private healthcare system as well as a public one. If you don’t like the service you’re getting from the NHS and you have money, you can get treated privately just like you can in the US.
The NHS isn’t perfect, but it’s not the hell that some in the US would have us believe, so don’t believe the lies America.
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