In defence of the NHS: I'm glad I didn't break my leg in the US

[Christa]

Of all the thoughts that flashed through my mind as I fell from 15ft up a ladder one morning last May, the potential financial cost of my unexpected descent was not one.

/snip

In the agonising hour that followed before our next-door neighbour arrived home and found me whimpering piteously for help, left leg utterly unresponsive, I had time to think of many things – including how stupid I'd been – but never the implications of my future treatment. This was Britain, after all. I would, without question, query or censure, be treated by the NHS at no cost to myself.

/snip

When we spoke last weekend, my mother-in-law, Sheila Thurau, had just received a letter telling her there was only $945 (£570) left to spend on treatment for her this year, under the US government's Medicare scheme for over 65s. As her current bill for the sort of medication 82-year-olds need – blood pressure tablets and the like – comes, so the letter informed her, to $262 a month, it will be a close-run thing whether she emerges in credit.

/snip

I have so far spent three weeks in hospital, had four operations under general anaesthetic, daily home visits from district nurses and face weeks, if not months, of more care. Yet I have never been asked for my credit card or insurance documents before treatment, as I was the only time I fell ill while visiting the in-laws in the US. No one has murmured that this treatment or that service might be a little on the expensive side, or will incur a delay. And no one – despite what conservative Republicans allege – has yet questioned whether my life is still worth living, or whether amputation would be cheaper.

I can't tell what my treatment has cost the NHS, but I have some idea what it might have been in the US thanks to the in-laws' doctor, who gave an estimate based on prices in Houston. The figures are eye-watering. She reckons: $12,000 per operation; up to $3,500 for anaesthetics each time; hospital at $500 a day and ambulance $300 a trip. That's not counting the cost of medicine. It adds up to more than $76,000, or at least £47,000. We'd have had to sell the house I was so rashly attempting to paint.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/19/nhs-healthcare-america

[AndyA]

1. And they keep telling us how the United States has the best health care in the world.

Right... :eyes:

(As long as you can afford it, I guess. $$$ talks.)

[rurallib]

2. I have often thought about what happens if I were to break a leg.

I would lay there in pain trying to decide whether to go to a doctor or not. Seriously.

[Christa]

3. I won't be able to afford going to a doctor

no matter what happens to me.

[TxRider]

7. I broke my ankle, one of the few times I've needed health care.

I didn't go to the doctor until late that night, when it was clear I had more than just a sprain.. Pain just was unbearable..

Hit the ER at about 3am, got xrays, a cast etc. and was back home in a few hours..

I really can't complain about the service, or the cost. Except for the ankle brace I ended up needing for a while, cost about $400 for a brace that looked like it should cost about $20-30..


The only other time I had to use health care was a surgery to remove my gall bladder, as it was full of gall stones, calcified and infected. No insurance.

I got all the care I needed, paid out of pocket, it took me almost a year to pay it all off, about $10,000 in total for hospital, surgeon, lab work etc.

I didn't have insurance because I was diagnosed with the problem just as I was shopping insurance for all my employees for a small business startup, and having that preexisting condition would have cost me more than the $10,000 in extra insurance rates for the company as a whole. It was cheaper for me to pay the cost myself, and then add myself to the policy 6 months later.

[stray cat]

4. I'm glad I made it back to the US before needing medical help for H1N1 complications

[Christa]

6. Well, I take it you have insurance

lucky you.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Those fees are outrageous!!

Sometimes people think they have the best when they pay outrageous prices.