Let's turn the clock back to 1948

My mother became very ill while on a trip to USA in 1957. We were small children and our DF had recently died.
She had no money and no insurance, was evicted from her hotel room and taken (by whom I don't know) to the charity hospital in Brooklyn where she was treated free of charge for 2 weeks.
She had been thinking of moving to live in the USA but after that experience she shuddered at the idea of one of us becoming ill or disabled and came to the UK instead.
Our most recent experience of care was DH's cancer treatment. Couldn't fault the 4 years of care until he died.
We are all mortal but nice to think we don't have to choose who is more important to treat than another.

growstuff

Thank goodness doctors don't peddle their pet theories about nutrition.

Indeed - and it's also worth noting that anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, whereas a dietician has to be fully qualified. While I'm not saying there aren't some who have qualifications and are reputable, there are also many so-called 'nutritionists' out there peddling all kinds of rubbish (many with a vested interest in trying to push expensive products which, at best, do nothing for you and at worst, could actually do a lot of damage).

I was'nt born but my parents always appreciated the NHS ,they saved my mother when she had her only child and helped my father when he had a very bad industrial accident and was in the hospital for 6 months. DH worked for it all his working life.

PS. My friend's mother is German and living in Germany.

MOnica France, Germany and most other European countries pay a higher percentage of GDP (and more per capita) than the UK.

Many Germans pay for private healthcare on top of the compulsory insurance because it's having similar problems to the UK.

My friend's mother is currently terminally ill and her experience of the social care system is not good and it's costing a fortune. She would have been better off in the UK.

They are also better funded than the NHS, MOnica

In 2017, the UK spent £2,989 per person on healthcare, which was around the median for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: OECD (£2,913 per person).

However, of the G7 group of large, developed economies, UK healthcare spending per person was the second-lowest, with the highest spenders being France (£3,737), Germany (£4,432) and the United States (£7,736).

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/articles/howdoesukhealthcarespendingcomparewithothercountries/2019-08-29

I ssuspect we might almost be better off. Just because we would not have the NHS doesn't mean having a system like the USA.

Many countries have far more efficient systems that are essentially state funded. All most all EU countries do. In France it is a mix of state funding and mandatory insurance. Those on lower incomes do not pay for the insurance. I am sure there is a GN member who lives in France, who could fill the details in.

In 30 years of having a house in France we have used the French system twice. Once when DH went down with a severe respiratory infection. We took him to A&E, he was quickly triaged and taken to a waiting room with comfortable adjustable arm chairs for those who were clearly unwell, with blankets and pillows. Once seen and exrayed he was given a prescription, which we had to pay for, about 12 euros and a few months later we received a bill for treatment - 30 euros.

Similarly, when our DGD, then a year old have an allergic reaction to touching a tomato, we rushed her down to A&E, were immediately sent up to a paediatric ward where she was seen immediately. They kept her on the ward for some hours until the swelling and rash began to clear. later we received a bill for 8 euros.

To assume if not NHS then USA when there are so many other countries with better health care and effectively free health care is just perverse. Many of them have far better outcomes than the NHS.

I was born in 1955 in a nursing home. The reason I was born there rather than in an NHS hospital was because the maternity hospital was in the old workhouse building and my mother was a snob and wasn't going to give birth in a place she still considered to be a workhouse.

All 4 of my siblings were born at home before 1948. One was a breach birth! I was born in 1952 in a nursing home, presumably because it was NHS.

I wish Mum was still alive to ask her about it

Thanks to Nye Bevan and William Beveridge, my 33 year old daughter is fit and well ( and in the middle of a healthy pregnancy) due to her regular injections of insulin. The ongoing costs of this would cripple her and her husband ( and she is, of course, uninsurable). Thanks to the NHS regular commitment to her care, she is working, paying tax and contributing to her community. It's a win- win as far as I can see.

Thank goodness doctors don't peddle their pet theories about nutrition.

Nan66 Unfortunately, some of the well-meaning advice about nutrition is not evidence-based.

Does it make a huge difference whether the insurance is paid directly to the government via taxes and NICs or to (hopefully) well-regulated insurance companies? By the way, I read that French doctors have been told to reduce the costs of prescribing, especially antibiotics, because they're becoming unsustainable.

I was born in 1947, and I wished I'd asked my mother what her experience had been, and how much she had to pay for a Caesarean procedure.

Unfortunately, the doctors in NHS are not taught anything about nutrition. If more people were told about how life-threatening it can be to eat meat, dairy, and eggs. Cows milk is for calves, not people. Going plant-based can reverse heart disease, diabetes, and other autoimmune diseases. The more people ate this way the NHS would not have so many sick people to look after. The NHS only tries to cure instead of prevent. Also NHS needs a good shake up because I don't think it is run as efficiently as it should be.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food, Hippocrates.

You also pay a higher percentage of GDP on healthcare.

Just to point out that we pay a top-up insurance in France, but the lowest income groups do not have to pay. The insurance companies providing top-up cannot refuse because of pre-conditions and are tightly controlled.

But Gagajo you and I wouldn't have been alive to get cancer.

I wouldn't be here. My mother had to be ambulanced to hospital giving birth to both myself and my brother.

I would have died from cancer 12 years ago.

I realised that pascal. It's a horrendous thought.

Unfortunately, I think there are some who would prefer that kind of system - especially if they had shares in the healthcare providers.

growstuff

pascal30

I was getting worried by the way the NHS appears to be being deliberately run down by this government and so I got some quotes for private medical insurance from Saga and Bupa. They started at around £600 per month!!! I hope everyone does everything within their power to ensure that the NHS can continue as a free service and crucially get this government out of power.

Did you look up quotes for funerals too? I think I'd be likely to need one because I couldn't afford £600 a month!

Yes quite... obviously I can't afford it either.. just making the point that hardly any of us could if private health insurance became mandatory

We must not only protect the NHS at all costs and resist any attempts to privatise it, but call for it to be properly funded. Yes, it has changed out of all recognition since it was founded in 1948, but we need only cast our eyes across the Atlantic to see what a privatised healthcare system could mean. Does anyone seriously think it would be better to have that kind of system, where those who could afford it would still have a decent level of healthcare, but those who could not would be left to suffer?

pascal30

I was getting worried by the way the NHS appears to be being deliberately run down by this government and so I got some quotes for private medical insurance from Saga and Bupa. They started at around £600 per month!!! I hope everyone does everything within their power to ensure that the NHS can continue as a free service and crucially get this government out of power.

Did you look up quotes for funerals too? I think I'd be likely to need one because I couldn't afford £600 a month!

growstuff Thank you those statistics. Alarming. I doubt if my brother, a forceps delivery, would have survived if my parents hadn’t been able (just) to pay for a doctor.