Reply #4: Your story of the NHS is more than an anecdote...it is reality [View All]

When patients are put before profit, the result is superior care. There are few horror stories that are related to the universal ('socialist) aspect of the National Health Service. Most complaints relate to technical details of the hospital or a snide comment made by a member of staff. I recently had a series of doctor visits and got blood tests. The price for all this? £5.50, for the bus fare to and from the hospital. Intact one doctor suggested that I get a neurological test (all free at the point of delivery). I opted not to since the small non-voluntary twitches that sent me the hospital in the first place, were most likely coming from stress or poor diet (the advice of another NHS doctor). The attitude of the medical professionals was that they truly cared about my health.

My poor old mother back in the US (a UK citizen, by the way) is forced to pay around ten thousand a year for shitty 'health' care. She may, or may, not see a doctor every month or so. Sometimes she is forced to see the doctors assistant...but she pays as though she is seeing the best doctor in the country. What is ironic is that the doctor assistant is more helpful than the actual doctor.

I had the yell at my dad to finally convince him that the UK service was superior to any pathetic excuse offered in the US. One of my other relatives called me a liar to my face. Americans will never go for universal health coverage for at least another generation. Keep in mind that the NHS only came in to existence after the Second World War with the assistance of the 'socialist' labour government. Prior to the 1940s, the healthcare system in Britain loosely resembled the US system of now where only wealthy received medical treatment. But then again, interwar Brittons only had to pay about two shillings to have the doctor stop by.

Better days will come, but will any of us live to see it is the real question.