Buying travel insurance is a pain in
the ass. It gets even worse when you have a “pre-existing
condition”. Suddenly your insurance goes from “Hmmm... that's
good” to “Holy Hell! I better sell a kidney!”. I had to buy
some recently and, for a week and having bipolar, it cost me the best
part of £50. Touch wood I won't have to use it.
Which got me thinking about our own
health service. For those who don't know, I live in the UK, home to
one of those branches of socialised medicine which has been held up
as an example for Obamacare. People moan about the NHS, and there's
rarely a day when it's not in the news. Normally for the wrong
reasons. Across the world, people only seem to pick up on bad nurses,
or killer infections, or overpaid managers (Yeah, I agree on getting
rid of them), or a multitude of other little things. Apparently the
NHS is on the brink of falling apart or is about to be sold off to
private companies. Apparently we live in a third world country
because we have socialised medicine. Rarely do they look at the
bigger picture.
Thankfully, despite a number of
accidents, I've never had to take an ambulance ride to accident and
emergency (although I seem to have spent an awful lot of time there
for various things including burns, one overdose, several broken
bones, a couple of snapped ligaments and after care for a few bits
and pieces). Thankfully, I also don't have an on-going illness (other
than the biopolar, which I'm able to manage myself) so my story is
probably very different from other peoples. But the treatment and
help I've received is nothing short of outstanding. Yes, I moan when
I can't get through to my doctors because the phone line seems to be
constantly engaged. But, much like in places which don't have
socialised medicine, I can choose which doctor I want to see. Heck, I
can change medical practices at the drop of a hat (and am planning on
it).
When I overdosed, I wound up damaging
my brain. I was put into a protective bubble of doctors, social
services, mental health practitioners, and pharmacies. Without it, I
probably wouldn't have been able to get back on my feet.
Not all treatment in the UK is free.
Dental care and eye tests still have to be paid for. It's the same
with prescriptions, but having seen how much my drugs cost PER pill,
£7.85 for a month's worth of medication is a bargain. But, because
I'm a low paid worker, the only thing I have to pay for is my
glasses. Everything's paid for through National Insurance, a tax
which is taken out of my pay check. And it's not thousands of pounds
per year. It's a few pounds. Tax from other things (sales of alcohol
and tobacco) also helps to fund the health service.
I'm blessed to know, and work with,
several nurses who've been involved with the NHS. All of them speak
highly of their time there, only changing jobs because they wanted a
change of scenery. All of them are the kind of people you'd expect to
be nurses; kind, caring, always smiling, and with a solution for
everything.
To put it bluntly, our now privatized
rail system (once British Rail) is now worse than the NHS. You pay
stupidly high prices to travel a few miles, yet none of the money
seems to go back to fix a struggling system. And the prices for rail
tickets go up by at least 4% every year.
Other people might despise it, but I
love the NHS. I love that we pioneered socialised medicine. But what
Obama needs to do is come over here and see how it really works. Our
system wasn't built overnight, and it doesn't require us to hold a
several thousand pound a year policy. Like any kind of service, our
NHS isn't perfect. But it's always been there when I need it the
most, and I'm truly and honestly thankful for it.
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