How long have you got? I’m in the US and the system here is complex. But personally I feel it’s much better.
In summary, it’s a private system that involves a monthly insurance premium. This is paid whether you go to the doctor or not (like you pay car insurance whether you drive every day or not). There are additional costs associated with receiving healthcare up to a maximum each year. For reference, my maximum is $3000. So no matter what happens to me and what healthcare I need, it’ll never cost me more than $3000 in a calendar year. That might sound like a lot but we pay much lower taxes.
If you are employed by a company with at least 50 FTE employees the company has to, by law, provide a group healthcare plan to the employees. These are cheaper than individual healthcare plans. In many cases, and this is the case for my employer, the company pays the monthly premium. They do this to attract and retain talented employees - it’s a perk of the job. Otherwise you have to buy a private healthcare plan yourself. Even companies with fewer than 50 FTEs may provide a group healthcare plan - again to attract and retain staff. But they don’t have to. You can cover additional family members with your plan. So I work for a large company that provides healthcare. My husband does not. So I cover him under my plan. Our children would be covered too if we had any.
There’s a lot of misinformation in the UK about our healthcare over here. I have lived and worked in both the UK and the US. Adding up my tax deductions and my $3000 maximum each year (which is worst case scenario. Some years I use less than $100) over here is still a lot less than I paid in tax and NI in the UK. I have seen people comment on here when I have posted about healthcare before and the annual maximum “but I don’t have s spare $3000 a year”. Well you would if you were in our wages (which are higher) and at our rate of taxation (which is lower). Even our sales tax/VAT is less than half that of the UK. You are taxed at an insane level there.
Contrary to popular belief in the UK, the ambulance doesn’t pull up and ask how you are going to pay before scraping you up off the road after you’ve been hit by a car. Payment is done much later. My husband had surgery in August and we still have not received the bill yet. Insurance is still doing their thing with it. When the bill does come, we can make monthly payments. It’s not a case of “pay now or we’ll send the bailiffs”.
The benefits here are that we have more choice, more regular and earlier screening, no waiting lists, and higher survival rates for things like cancer. In short, I know where I’d rather be ill. Even if it costs more (which it actually doesn’t, all things considered). For example my husband had a TKN (total knee replacement). From the appointment with the consultant where he the decision was made that nothing else was working and his only option now was TKN, to being in the operating room was less than 3 weeks. And that delay was for measurements and scans.