http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23welovetheNHS

I love this!

Honestly, the crap that is coming out in the states bout the NHS is disgusting.
The NHS is fantastic. It has it's problems, like everything, but overall? Top notch.
The English like a good whinge and given the chance will complain about just about anything, so it always needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
However, most of them, at the end of the day, will say that the NHS is a good thing and for all the scary Daily Mail stories out there, there's literally MILLIONS of people, who, like the guy in my office, would be dead without them.

Good talking fella, your bang on. The NHS was'nt always as bad, it took 17 years of tory NHS raping. So when Labour got in, it was like trying to glue back together a vase that had been smashed into a million pieces, with a stapler.
I moan about it(coz i is English), but i would'nt be without it. You see, over here, people with health insurance are in the minority, so most rely on the NHS.
As Backtrack said, we all have friends and family that have benefitted or had their lives saved by it.
I actually get scared to get sick in the States, just in case my insurance does'nt cover it. Because we all know how the health insurance company's will do anything to get out of paying up.
Just a shame there are so many impressionable Americans lapping up the right wing propaganda. Even the Tories know they can't go back to what they did in the 80's and 90's, to the NHS.
But then the American right makes the Tories look like Commies.

Yep- just posting to agree with these 2 guys. The NHS is amazing. I have travelled a fair bit and whilst the food everywhere else in the world is better than the U.Ks, nowhere has a better healthcare system.

DonnieRobot? Scary Andy?
Step up.
gforce? where are you?
Jeb, you have benefited as well.
Carl, don't pretend you have nothing to say on the matter.

Many in the US have returned to the fear-mongering of the Bush era as a last resort to stop affirmative healthcare change. It is not surprising that they are using the example of a "foreign" national health care system that "does not work" to try to stop this change. It just more use of fear and lies and exaggeration. Pity is, it seems to be working. We'd be lucky to have a system as solid as the NHS in the USA.

i'll put in my 2cents...

definitely up the NHS!!!!!!!!!!

if i had been in the US the past 10years,,myself (& effectively my entire family) would be in a financial hole of despair...

the NHS has been there for me multiple times,,without question...i am so thankful for a system that looks after its people

all the shit i hear coming out of people's mouths in the us right now makes me so happy to have taken the leap & become a british citizen...

one lady in bumfuck indiana: "this health care reform is socialism,,i do not want us to become russia!!"

WTF!!!!

I know I'm pushing this, but I think it's important for people to know that nationalised healthcare can be a good thing and the NHS is definitely a good thing.

From what I have seen, Obama's plan is actually quite different and the Republicans are just trying to scare people and distract them.

I agree too
The NHS has saved the bacon of family and friends many times.
Without their amazing staff and care I'd have a whole load less people alive around me now, including my wife and daughter...

So help squash some fears with personal stories. Rare diseases- did you have to wait on a 124235 year waiting list? That's a big one. Are you able to see ANY doctor you want without restrictions whenever you want? Another. It's more than just "RED-FEAR!" there's a lot of things. It's not all from "Evil republicans" either, if you've ever been to a State run hospital in the US you've been 1 step from hell, they're horrible, so a lot of people base those as what will happen. I don't agree with Obama OR the Republicans, they both suck, and I don't like his proposed plan, however I don't like what we have either. I don't think it's a cut-n-dry-this-or-that issue, but I'm always open to other opinions/stories on the issue.

Healthcare is a kajillion dollar industry here in the US. What's good for business? Sick people! Anything that makes people sicker, i.e unhealthy foods to make them fat, cancer, disease, all good for business. The insurance companies, medical industry, and the pharmaceutical giants all have the government by the balls. The help candidates get elected and get their boys into key positions make policy to keep things going the way it has been for a very long time.

Certain people making money from this do not want change so of course they feel pressure to combat it. Only problem is now everyone knows how corrupt and messed up the system is. So they have to resort to fear mongering and get your average ignorant american to believe it. Unfortunately that's all too easy sometimes. Sad really. I'd sign up for NHS any day over our current or proposed healthcare reform.

The NHS has its fair share of faults, but from what I understand about the Healthcare system in the US it's a god send to the masses not just those that can afford to be treated . . .

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=health-insurers-want-you-to-keep-sm-2009-06-03

It's not surprising, but it is disgusting.

To be honest Blood, i don't know the full in's and out's of the reforms Obama is trying to implement. But i do know you guys have a lot of problems even if you are insured. Like i said above, just cos you've got insurance don't mean they'll pay up. Why do you think that US state run hospitals are so bad? because they have no funding.
The main problem will be getting company's to swap their employee's health payments, from private to public as so many people have their health insurance through their job's.
On the news here last night they showed a British doctor who runs a free clinic in LA(i think), that moves about, to different area's. The fucking queue, you would not believe(maybe 300 to 400 people). People had been out all night, just to see this doctor............fucking criminal. I reckon you could see a doctor in Iraq, easier.
The sooner the States moves away from getting fucked by huge company's the better, everything is always in their court. Big business runs your country like no other(developed) country in the world.............It's a shame.

And how much higher is the tax rate in the UK?

for non-ballers,,it is 20%

not that bad considering you are looked after no matter what....

you can call an ambulance without fear of a $1000bill...

you can get x-rays & MRI scans without fear of a $2000bill...

you can go to the hospital with any ailment without fear of paying $500an hour...

etc etc etc...

What are the options like, though? Can you pick to see who ever you want, specialists, doctors? What are the restrictions?

Regarding the "wait list" - it's not like we (in the US) can get in to see a doctor at the drop of a hat. Whenever I, or my wife, has called to make an appointment it's AT LEAST 3 weeks out before we can get in.
And because my wife lost her job this past spring I put her on my plan - paying an additional $400 per month! - and the insurance picked up about $70 out of $700 worth of medical bills for appointments/tests she's had since I put her on my plan.
Insurance is just legalized racketeering. Oh, and don't confuse insurance with healthcare - they're two different things. Healthcare is great...it will stay the same regardless of the system that supports it. Insurance of all kinds is obscene.

There are several local doctors, and it all depends on your area.
So you see your local GP and they send you off to whatever specialist you may need.

If we're gonna be honest here, the GPs vary widely, some are great and some are shit. The NHS really comes into it's own in terms of serious care. You asked about the wait time, well I have a mate who has a mole and it's taken him about a month and a half to get that removed.
On the other hand, another friend of mine had ovarian cancer and she was in hospital within the week.
If it's a real problem it is taken care of straight away.
There are always exceptions, there are always crazies who will pull their own teeth out, but really, they would have done that with or without the NHS.

It's probably worth pointing out that there are plenty of private practitioners as well. You are not forced to use the NHS, it just tends to make alot of sense.
I know some people who will use a private GP, but use the NHS for anything hospital related.

And that 20% also covers benefits, so like unemployment, job placement, general social care.
One of the most striking things I have noticed is the homeless situation here is alot different to the US one. Sure it's an issue, and yeah, some of them are crazy, but there aren't nearly as many scary drunken loonies on the streets of London as there are in NYC. And that is, at least in part, due to the fact that they get free care from very early on in their lives.
Hell, one of my old flatmates would have, without a doubt! been a crazy on the streets had it not been for the NHS, as it was, he was only a crazy in my house. But then he wouldn't take the meds that were offered to him.

The NHS rules....one of the reasons I love the UK and would never go live in the US. Yes it has it's faults, yes there's waiting lists but it's free.

And if you have the cash you can just go private anyway via either a work-sponsored "heath insurance" style scheme or on an individual basis through BUPA.

Typicaly reationary BS coming out from the right as well "socialising healthcare"....no, its just making the system less about a way of tossers making money and more about actually treating sick people!!!!!!

If my family lived in the US we'd be bankrupt by now due to family illness. In fact the NHS has on 3 separate occassions saved the life of my loved ones for no more than the taxation of my monthly wages.

you have a local GP doctor who looks after your general medical stuff (check-ups,,prescriptions,,etc)...

everybody needs to be registered with a local GP...

for specialist doctors & treatment,,your GP refers to specialists....

in my case,,i went straight to the specialists,,i had a couple emergency surgeries & i was then connected with very good specialists...

all of the specialists do practice outside of the NHS in private practice but they divide their time equally with the NHS..

with 4 surgeries,,many weeks in the hospital,,radiation/chemotherapy,,i have not been bothered for a penny...

pretty amazing considering it is only 20% of my salary,,

if i were in the US,,my bills would be deep in the 6 digits..

Seems to be about the same time constraints we're working with here.


This is no different than any health plan I've had.

yes,,but it is not a health plan,,it is something everybody has access to...no matter how rich or poor...

It is incredible to me how I hear so much misinformation here in the states about the NHS. It is merely a matter of looking at national infant mortality rates and life expectancies to see how far behind the US is when it comes to health care in the industrialized world. Yet the US has the highest health care costs of any nation on Earth. It is either willful ignorance or woeful stupidity that is fueling the sentiments on the right in this nation.

I'm curious if you guys in the UK think that a two tiered system like what is being proposed here in the states would be better than the NHS?

Yeah, I'm agreeing that the NHS sounds a lot better than what we've got. So far the time frames and the GP/specialist set-up is basically the same, but without the horrible insurance middle-man.
Basically my opinion is that the services rendered will not change regardless of how those services are paid for.

Plus VAT? etc...

My sis and her bf are both doctors, on a trip abroad to ireland and the UK she informed me if she broke anything just to put her on a plane back to the US.
lol
edit: That's not meant to offend anyone, and I can't personally comment on care in the UK b/c I didn't have to seek any while living there, just a bit of a view from a US dr on other care.