Why do Americans think NHS style healthcare is bad?

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You also are unwilling to discuss the amount you pay into the system or how mach you have paid into the system over the span of your working life. Why not?
 
Back to the original question:
  1. Many Americans (especially folks who consider themselves to be conservative) think it’s not the job of the federal government to be involved in healthcare. If anything, they would prefer it to be up to the states to choose to provide that sort of help.
  2. People outside the US may not know that we do have Medicare, which is a federally sponsored health benefit for people of retirement age, and Medicaid which is a federal program for very low-income people. They are both known for reimbursing at a level lower than private insurance pays, so essentially private insurance patients overpay because medical providers cannot afford to lose money on their Medicaid patients.
  3. Many people consider that anytime the federal government gets involved in an industry (whether medicine, higher education, mortgage lending) costs are inflated, all kinds of corruption follows.
 
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A very good point because a provider in the US I can pick up a phone and have a patient (if necessary) an MRI and ortho visit in 2-3 hours. That same patient can have their surgery and Be recovering in 1-2 days.

I had a patient Wednesday that had been having what I though was unstable angina and high risk for a heart attack, i called the cardiologist and told him my concerns, signed one piece of paper and sent her to pre-op. 2 hours later she had seen the heart surgeon, had a catch and stent placed and was recovering in ICU. It’s not always necessary or needed to do that but rarely do I have to struggle when I do need something like that.

I’ve had children with labs changes that could have been leukemia or a bad case of mono- they’ve seen pediatric oncology within the hour and I work in a pretty rural place. That hour wait was how long it took to drive to the town where the oncologist works.

Now, if that knee has been giving you trouble and it’s time for a replacement then it’s probably going to take a couple of weeks to get images and see ortho and get stuff ready for surgery.
 
In the UK the individual pays 12.5% of their check and the employers pay 13%. That is not inexpensive. The UK system is awful.
 
In Croatia we have NHS and you wait for Magnet Resonance for 1.5-2 years. Not good at all. Lists are so long that you wait for most things for months and years. Basic insurance is “free” and is also obligatory. You can lose it if you don’t signup for it after losing job etc. There is also supplemental insurance cca 9 euros/month which is really hillarious. I can tell you that this is not good.
And in most ex-communist states there is NHS. And unfortunatelly most of Croatians can’t afford health system which wouldn’t be NHS. Sometimes I just delete my reservation for doctor because it is too long to wait. You can die waiting.
Depts of our hospitals are more than billion euros now.
 
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As a medical provider in the US I would like to add my perspective. It’s been mentioned that we have a few more socialist-based concepts of health insurance that are available here. 1) Medicare - working Americans pay into this throughout our lives, with the idea that once we retire (ages can vary but 62.5-67) we have healthcare or if we’ve earned enough “work credits” and become disabled at age 40, let’s say, then we get our Medicare we’ve paid in for. It was a much better system in the past, but even before the Obamacare the government had been eroding away at it some. Post Obamacare- for a lot of people it’s . . . not good . … , for those it’s not that’s generally because they have a good supplement they can afford to pay for or it was part of retirement benefits from where they retired. So, we work, add to society- we pay in - we have Medicare in our advanced years.

Next we have Medicaid- the idea there is our babies, children, pregnant women and low income families, handicapped are covered. In the state I live in children and handicapped generally pay $0 to see a doctor, dentist, eye doctor, etc. if they need medications they $0. If they need a surgery $0. After the age of 18, they generally pay $4 to see whatever doctor and $4/prescription. If you need a surgery $4. Unless you are in college or a few other reasons you pay for your own dentist and eye doctors. I can get my Medicaid patients into any specialty available.

Now, if you are the average American with a good job you don’t get Medicaid but you can make the choice to work at a job where you can private health insurance- private health insurance is offered as perks of working at companies generally and to be honest, a lot of companies offer amazing insurance as a way to attract creme of the crop employees. We have what is called a max out of pocket so for my entire family after we’ve spent $3000/combined - we don’t pay as other dime for doctor visits, hospital visits, any tests or medications etc for the remainder of the year. $3000 is a lot of money but honestly if you prepare for it, it’s a pretty great. We pick who and where we want to go. We get to pick which doctor or hospital we want. So you want to be a GREAT HEALTHCARE OPTION as a doctor or hospital or surgical center because obviously private health insurance pays a lot better and we want to attract those patients. If you are a lower income worker that works a job the offers health insurance you can pay for your health insurance and still get Medicaid which will pay for EVERYTHING your insurance doesn’t- most of them aren’t having to worry about that $3000 out of pocket because the “government” picks up the bill so to speak. The nice thing about that is most, not all but most hospitals, providers, pharmacies they take all 3 of the above healthcare options so I can send a privately insured healthcare worker who has medicaid as a back up to the same amazing specialist that I have available to me. This is a very simplified version of what we offer but we really do take care of most of our society very well. There are always reasons people fall
through but often it was their personal choices.
 
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