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davidb posted:Youll have to do better than health care to sink american nationalism. Especially post obama care Not really, my boyfriend is fully insured and he still had to pay over $200 (a $50 co-pay at the time, and then he also got a $170 bill a week later) for a trip to the doctor's to look at his eye for 5 seconds and tell him he had a stye recently. This is not including the antibiotic ointment he then picked up from the pharmacy. Meanwhile it costs me exactly zero to visit a GP when I'm back in the UK and medicine is a lot cheaper too. As many posters have explained this won't stop me from complaining about the UK, as I can always grouse about politicians cutting funding to the NHS (for no real reason other than ideology) and making it less efficient. I think it's healthy to focus on what's bad about your country and how it should be improved, it prevents complacency and short-sighted arrogance. Also, America spends proportionally more on healthcare than most nations with universal healthcare, and has been doing so for years, it doesn't "sink economies" by itself.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:21
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davidb posted:Well ill be damned. Didnt see that coming... well then americans still go to doctor for little things more where europeans will use home remedies from my anecdotal experience. No, they don't. Here is one of many reports on surveys where Americans say they specifically ignored healthcare concerns because of costs. This isn't really an issue in the UK- occasionally, an illness will go untreated for a long time (with it either luckily resolving on its own or eventually needing treatment), but it's either because there is a long waiting list for the treatment or because the individual prefers to rely on quack treatments, rarely due to worries about the cost. I can't imagine it is much different in places like France and Spain. I know that article is from a few years ago and Obamacare is improving things, but you don't seem to realize that it won't necessarily lead to full socialized medicine because people are blaming the limitations of Obamacare on the wrong things and would probably be hostile to further change. When my boyfriend got those bills he started criticizing Obama because he realized if he hadn't been "forced to get insurance" he would ultimately be paying less for healthcare- a shortsighted opinion of course because insurance is invaluable for the things that cost thousands of dollars if you get them, but all he was seeing in the moment was the slight disadvantage when it came to the cheaper bills. I would not be surprised if he tried to pick up something from the drugstore and hope for the best next time, whereas I would definitely go to the doctor in the UK again if I got another eye infection. It's free, you can rule out more serious things with similar symptoms, and you can get a stronger medicine on prescription for only around £8. Not to mention that the idea that people don't go to the doctor for minor ailments in the UK but do in this US seems anecdotally spurious when every time I call my GP the place is fully booked up for about a month (you are told to call at like 8am the next day and hope there was a cancellation, luckily there often is), whereas when I accompanied my bf to the walk-in centre there was no one there and he didn't even have to make an appointment. There doesn't seem to be as much demand being put on the system. Even if you don't go to the doctor because it's obvious you just have a cold and you don't want to waste their time, you usually take over-the-counter drugs. Almost every home in Europe also has a medicine cabinet with cough syrup, headache pills and first aid stuff in it. I'm not sure where you get the impression that we cook up a home remedy on the stove. Maybe some chicken soup or lemon tea to relieve symptoms, but not usually to the exclusion of actual medicine as well. At least in the developed areas, I am not sure about what a small village in a poorer country like Bulgaria is like.
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Jan 23, 2015 22:49
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