Best health care system in the world my fuckin ass!

[OwnedByCats]

42. This not hospital related

Last edited Tue Feb 12, 2013, 09:51 AM - Edit history (1)

but something that I found ridiculous. I moved to the UK in my mid twenties back in the 90's. At first I was worried because I'd heard their NHS was horrible. I don't know about the other parts of England I didn't live in, but the NHS was pretty good I found. I got better results there than I ever received here.

After ten years in England, I got the shock of my life when I returned home. The first time I saw a doctor here after being away, I was given a standard blood test. This wasn't special testing, just blood counts, iron, vitamin D and thyroid levels. One thing to remember, I was not insured at the time. When I got the bill for my test from the lab, I almost fainted. It was $800!!! I mean, are you kidding me?! Between that and my one doctor visit, I owed almost 4 figures. What the hell happened here?

Back in 1997 (I was not insured then either), I saw my gynocologist for my yearly "woman" check up just before I moved abroad. She did the cervical biopsy, took enough blood to test for all I mentioned above, plus enough to test for STD's which was standard practice then, just in case there may be a disease that didn't produce physical symptoms. I paid $150 for that check up, including the lab work, which by today's standards is pretty cheap! God only knows how much they charge for those now.

What is the world coming to when seeing your doctor once will cost you 3 figures and then into 4 God forbid you need any blood tests?

Just disgusting and this is only the tip of the iceberg.



Edited to say: I don't mind paying for health care if it's reasonable, but when one visit with blood work eats up nearly an entire month's salary for some people, something is very wrong. Prior to that I'd had a seizure and went to the hospital. Between the ambulance, CT scan, vitals taken and some potassium to drink, my bill came to almost $5,000. This is just not acceptable. The service in England was far better. Example: If I called my doctor's office in England with a request for him to call me back, he always did within 2 hours. If I call my doctor here, if I hear back later that day, it's a rare occurance. Usually I end up waiting a couple days and that's only contingent on whether I call to remind them I asked for a call back.