US vs UK Healthcare

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

It's not that they're dumb, they just don't care. No one gives a ####### about healthcare until they need it. They might think about others that need healthcare, but people are rarely motivated until they or someone they care about need it. I pay $14 a week for my wife and I to have healthcare. Why would I ever opt for taxes that stand to increase the amount I pay for healthcare?

Now Islamists flying planes into buildings? Tax away. It's amazing how scared americans are of the rest of the world. Has to be a correlation to how many Americans travel outside of the country for pleasure.

Sadly you are right. Now that I am not working Health care is a big issue for me and will more than likely dictate if I will go back to work. There is a glut of part time work out there right now. No one is hiring much full time until we see what Obama care does to health care. Ido think requiring people to be covered is not a bad idea.

We had a couple at work who could easily afford it and did not get it. He had major health problems and the hospital wrote of 100K in emergency care. soooo Wrong

I just got approved for free VA health care. we will see how that works out.

[Glyn and Kathy 288]

You think horror stories like that and even worse don't happen in the USA?

Did I say that?? No, what I said was, the NHS isn't perfect. And...I ALSO said I far prefer HAVING the NHS.....and that there is no PERFECT system. Please don't assume you know what I think.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

OP (and others like her in the thread who say they want to move back to the UK one day) - you need to do two things now:

1. You should well and properly make sure that any NHS care you have received while on a tourist visa was "free of charge". Because if it wasn't, and one day you apply for a spouse visa, and you owe a balance to the NHS, your visa will be denied.

2. Before your UK loved one moves over here, read and learn THOUROUGHLY about the UK's new immigration rules for non-EU spouses. You may find that it won't be as easy to return home one day as you imagine.

*spoken as the US citizen wife of a British expat who faces kidney disease, dialysis and a transplant under the US healthcare system*

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

OP (and others like her in the thread who say they want to move back to the UK one day) - you need to do two things now:

1. You should well and properly make sure that any NHS care you have received while on a tourist visa was "free of charge". Because if it wasn't, and one day you apply for a spouse visa, and you owe a balance to the NHS, your visa will be denied.

2. Before your UK loved one moves over here, read and learn THOUROUGHLY about the UK's new immigration rules for non-EU spouses. You may find that it won't be as easy to return home one day as you imagine.

*spoken as the US citizen wife of a British expat who faces kidney disease, dialysis and a transplant under the US healthcare system*

Sorry to hear that, Rebecca. Hope it all works out alright for you and your hubby.

[Protocol417 161]

You only need to read the UK newspapers or watch the nightly news to know how bad some of the healthcare is in this country. We've been very lucky...but FIL was not. No one put him back on his heart monitor in Oct 2011 when he left the ward to go get some tests run. When he came back...he had missed his supper because he had waited 4 hours for his tests to be done, someone rushed to find him a sandwich but neglected to put his monitor on. He had a heart attack just days earlier and was waiting for surgery the following day. He had another heart attack during the night but no one knew because his monitor wasn't on...even though he was on the cardiac ward.Blame it on a lack of nurses or staff that just couldn't be bothered, but we lost a dear sweet man that night. That is just ONE example...just google STAFFORD hospital scandal in the UK and you will see what some people have dealt with here.

Like I said, we've been lucky and I FAR prefer knowing that I can go to the doctors and it won't cost a fortune...but its not perfect. I don't think there IS a perfect solution for healthcare. I do know it should NOT be profit driven though...peoples lives are more important than money.

I'm very sorry to hear about that. That is quite unfortunately... sorry, I don't have to words to quite adequately express what I really mean by that.

It is always more real when it happens to you, I know. And I definitely agree with your last paragraph. I don't mean to put the NHS on a pedestal, even though I did have a very positive personal experience. Unless you've experienced both systems, though, it's hard to understand the other viewpoint, and that's why I wrote this. Americans think "socialized medicine" is this horrible evil where you wait months and months for necessary services and pay ridiculous taxes, and the Brits I've met seem to think the American healthcare "system" is like staying at a four-star hotel with an inexpensive monthly fee where you are seen the moment you walk in the door (that doesn't even happen with an appointment!) In truth, it's just as bad as what you described above, especially in less affluent areas: People dying in the waiting room in Emergency after they collapsed in full view of staff and were just left there, surgical instruments being left inside patients, denial of service, people being examined in hallways due to overcrowding, and so forth. There was also recently an expose done by one of the news magazines here in the States that showed how the hospitals over-charge: Double-billing, nickle-and-diming everything (like $3 for the reusable pen the doctor used to mark where s/he was operating or $15 for gauze), and charging dozens of times more than the item or service actually costs.

I imagined that experiences would be different depending on where in the country you are (same as here). My personal viewpoint is that the best model is probably Germany's, with its mix of public and private. BUT, that said, I would take the NHS any day over the US's healthcare; I wish we had something like it here, but we probably never will because of the public perception.

[Protocol417 161]

OP (and others like her in the thread who say they want to move back to the UK one day) - you need to do two things now:

1. You should well and properly make sure that any NHS care you have received while on a tourist visa was "free of charge". Because if it wasn't, and one day you apply for a spouse visa, and you owe a balance to the NHS, your visa will be denied.

2. Before your UK loved one moves over here, read and learn THOUROUGHLY about the UK's new immigration rules for non-EU spouses. You may find that it won't be as easy to return home one day as you imagine.

*spoken as the US citizen wife of a British expat who faces kidney disease, dialysis and a transplant under the US healthcare system*

I had read something about #1 but I think it only said that if you owed a balance to the NHS, you had to pay it, not that you would be automatically declined. There was no other information or answers to questions that I could find, such as statute of limitations or what precisely "owed a balance" meant or how you would otherwise find that balance.

Regarding #2, I've only just begun research as we thoroughly intended to stay here in the US (until I finally got enough money to visit his hometown, and now I would like to live there someday, for many, many reasons of which healthcare is only one) and I wouldn't exactly say that my expectations were that it would be "easy". I'm not incredibly worried, though, because we have friends who are a mixed-nationality couple living in England (she is from Brazil, and just moved to the UK as the spouse of a British citizen), and honestly, from how she described it, it was very similar to the process we're going through to get my fiance here, only a little less restrictive (ie you can work the moment you enter the country on your visa and don't have to apply for a separate work permit). That said, I have heard talk on the news podcasts and such that they are debating restricting what social benefits immigrant spouses can use. Let's see where that goes, since people really are rethinking this whole austerity thing.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I'm not looking down on them. I just booked my first trip out of North America and I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't so important to my wife. As you said it's hard for americans to travel like Europeans can since the tickets are so expensive. It doesn't change the fact that never leaving the states can cause a narrow, perhaps fearful view of the world.

Currently filling out security clearance for New Job. it ask do you have any contact with any foreign nationals in last 7 years. I think I blew up the OPM website

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I had read something about #1 but I think it only said that if you owed a balance to the NHS, you had to pay it, not that you would be automatically declined. There was no other information or answers to questions that I could find, such as statute of limitations or what precisely "owed a balance" meant or how you would otherwise find that balance.

Regarding #2, I've only just begun research as we thoroughly intended to stay here in the US (until I finally got enough money to visit his hometown, and now I would like to live there someday, for many, many reasons of which healthcare is only one) and I wouldn't exactly say that my expectations were that it would be "easy". I'm not incredibly worried, though, because we have friends who are a mixed-nationality couple living in England (she is from Brazil, and just moved to the UK as the spouse of a British citizen), and honestly, from how she described it, it was very similar to the process we're going through to get my fiance here, only a little less restrictive (ie you can work the moment you enter the country on your visa and don't have to apply for a separate work permit). That said, I have heard talk on the news podcasts and such that they are debating restricting what social benefits immigrant spouses can use. Let's see where that goes, since people really are rethinking this whole austerity thing.

UK immigration rules changed dramatically in July, 2012. You should research it.

[Ban Hammer 12,836]

Currently filling out security clearance for New Job. it ask do you have any contact with any foreign nationals in last 7 years. I think I blew up the OPM website

there's a key qualifier that goes with that sentence.

[Darnell 8,478]

Currently filling out security clearance for New Job. it ask do you have any contact with any foreign nationals in last 7 years. I think I blew up the OPM website

Just include copy of yer wife's bio page from passport, her visa stamp, her last greencard, and a copy of the marriage certificate. That'll be enough. Don't redact anything, though.

[Boiler 43,433]

If we take foreign nationals to be non USC's, then the answer for anybody would be YES.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Unfortunately for UK citizens....90% of them do not live within a days drive of the United States as Canadian citizens do. There is no escape hatch for them...or their system. The huge medical/industrial complex in Burlington, VT does not exist because of our 42,000 residents and the college students, it exists to serve the overflow of 3 million Canadians within a 2 hour drive. Within the service radius of our medical complex, more than 70% of the people are Canadian.

Good jobs and economy for us!

[Boiler 43,433]

I am going to guess that there are not that many UKC's who have enough savings to take 'advantage' of the US medical 'system'.

Apart from a few world renowned specialists why would they want to?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I am going to guess that there are not that many UKC's who have enough savings to take 'advantage' of the US medical 'system'.

Apart from a few world renowned specialists why would they want to?

So despite having free medical care they cannot afford a trip to the USA on the VWP? Seriously?

As to why? For the same reason Canadians do it. The same reason the Premier of Nova Scotia comes here for heart bypass surgery. The same reason that Vermont Radiology fills up with Quebec license plates every morning...they can actually get it done.

Canadian doctors say..."wait for an MRI for free or go to Vermont Radiology and get one today for $400. Bring me the CD"

Edited June 2, 2013 by Gary and Alla

[Boiler 43,433]

Why on earth would most people from UK etc come to the US, it has the most overpriced hospital system in the world.