We should treasure our nhs here’s why

[Workingclasslass]

As people know there was a CEO of a health insurance company in America that has just been shot and killed.
Anyway I happen to be watching YouTube. I am British and one of the bullets had written on it deny did you know that this particular health insurance has the biggest record for denying claims?
That’s right, people can’t get money for being ill and that medical bankruptcy is a major thing in America right now
I will note that there was no flowers or anything like that put after he got killed. I get the impression that for a lot of Americans they can see this thing coming to happen to these people because they really are adapt at not paying out when they should.
So my point is, yes the NHS needs a lot of work it’s not perfect but I’m telling you now as somebody that has been in hospital a hell of a lot if I was in America I think I would be totally screwed with how much it would cost me.
what are your thoughts?

I am not saying it is, but this was particular to do with the CEO being shot. It made me think about America and how much people are in debt because of healthcare care

Yup unfortunately apparently there was a poll. I’ve just heard on LBC showing that reform has got ahead but who can trust these polls particularly ones done by right wing press

The thing for me is I believe that the conservatives deliberately did this deliberately made you all hate the NHS because of the chronic underfunding and waste and everything else that goes along with it so that we all go along for the next model you can see it in real time people have been saying this for ages but were told they were conspiracy theorists . I don’t believe that I think it’s true.

My sons have a genetic condition which means they'll both need kidney transplants, possibly more than one in their lifetimes. My eldest's kidneys have declined to the point where he's due to start dialysis.

My concern about moving to any kind of insurance based health service is what will happen to those of us with serious
pre-existing conditions? Insurance companies tend to either exclude them or set their premiums at extortionate rates.

My sons are 20 and 18 and are just starting out in life - there's no way they could pay for costly insurance premiums. I understand that dialysis, transplants and medication to prevent organ rejection are expensive, it would bankrupt us if we had to pay the actual cost. For this reason I strongly support the NHS model of healthcare.

I guess in a way for selfish reasons it’s the same for me because I have lymphoedema in both legs and I think a few years back I have been in hospital three times for infections where I’d spent about two weeks each time so I have a long history of being in hospital, so this is why it’s probably precious for me

well u were really lucky. I still cant get my head round the welsh NHS telling my relative to lay on the hard floor and not move for 12 hours to wait for the ambulance because they had broken their hip. Barbaric

I disagree. I’m thankful for the many caring hard working, compassionate staff, but not the others and not the institution. It doesn’t work. We have worse survival rates for almost all cancers and numerous other serious diseases than most other civilised countries.

We have people waiting on waiting lists so long for eminently treatable things that end up crippled for life ( young girls with curvature of the spine) blind ( lack of cataract care etc) or dead.

Recent studies show that maternity care is failing.

The truth is that we already have a two tier system. Those who can do so go private or abroad. The rest suffer or die.

The comparator should be European health systems which outperform the U.K., not the US.

In Australia there are rules that you can’t exclude pre existing conditions - it’s very easy to set up rules to cover this (obviously there is a degree of detail to the rules - but your sons scenarios wohld
be covered. Either by insurance or Medicare - which is state provision.

Well the two situations are not comparable tbf as I was not an emergency. The emergency services everywhere are under terrible strain.

For example:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pensioner-ambulance-hip-christchurch-winifred-soanes-b2656742.html

The thread title sounds exactly like one of those awful Guardian opinion articles.

Fairly obvious why we're pushed to compare with the US and not systems that are better.

"One of them associates" is a physician associate with 2 years training. People have died due to poor care from them. It is a huge issue in general practice. I would rather have a European system and pay just a little bit more.

Don't get me started on receptionists triaging patients. So dangerous.

Reading various US accounts of insurance-based healthcare that latest events have kicked off, it does make me very glad of one aspect of the NHS that seems generally to work - prescriptions. Because the NHS gets to fix prices, you don't have to pay a fortune, or even much at all, for most things and you get children's medications free. And you'll never get to the pharmacist to find your insurer isn't covering and you'll have to pay $200 a month for something that should costs $60 (as on poster recounts)

The NHS is rubbish imo - my sister had retained placenta misdiagnosed and almost died and my mother was fobbed off with a sciatica diagnosis for 6 months until she had a bad turn and they found out she had a spinal tumour and lung cancer and died not long after. Very glad I can afford private , I would trust my vet before the NHS but I have to pay for it anyway one way or another