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Edited on Tue Aug-18-09 04:14 PM by SeekerBlue
I went there on a student visa, stayed on a domestic partnership visa, and lived and worked there happily.
If it had been up to me, I would not have come back to the US in 2005.
Even as a foreign student, I had immediate, free health care. I went to the on-campus NHS clinic and had a yearly physical and was given free condoms and a prescription for contraceptives, which was free.
Upon completing my graduate degree, I went to work in retail (couldn't get a better job both because of the post-9/11 economy and immigration limbo while I awaited the approval of my domestic partnership visa). During this time, I paid approximately 24% income tax, total. I continued to receive free health care. My GP was literally a block from my house. I never had to wait more than 15 minutes to see a doctor (and this was in the crowded SE, in a London M25 suburb!). I was routinely prescribed medicines that were either free or £5.00 per month. I continued to have yearly physicals, free.
I went in once with what I thought was an ear infection (I am prone to wax buildups). When I had last suffered this in the US, my American doctor had removed the wax and given me an ear infection from prodding too much. I ended up in the American ER at 2am with unbearable pain, waited 45 minutes to see a doctor, and was prescribed vicodin, which I paid, I think $30 for (this was in 1999). When I had the same problem in the UK, a nurse promptly removed the excess wax and told me to go to the pharmacy and buy a dropper and put a few drops of olive oil in each ear once per day for a couple of weeks. I have not had any wax buildups or ear infections since.
I also had an achy knee from a tennis injury I got when I was in middle school. I never went to the doctor, but it had infrequently been painful or felt "weird" over the years. While I was in the UK, still working in retail, I twisted my leg slightly one night and was in considerable pain around this knee. I made an appointment and was seen the next morning at my GP, who gave me a prescription for (free) pain medication, then referred me to an X-ray lab. I waited two days for the X-ray, by which time my pain was gone. The X-ray was free and took ten minutes from walking in to leaving. Turns out, I had some crushed bone in my knee and fluid on the knee. I was told this might require surgery at a much later date, but nothing was to be done at the time. It still acts up occasionally, but I am in no great pain.
I also had a pap smear come back abnormally while in the UK. I was scheduled for a biopsy at a specialist clinic and went in within two days. Again, I waited only about ten minutes, and the biopsy was over in another ten. There was a specialist ObGyn and a gynecological nurse on hand, who actually offered to hold my hand and answer my questions during the procedure. I was told the results a week later - it seemed to be an abnormality, and nothing was found wrong. Again - all free.
In April 2005, unfortunately back in the US, I was diagnosed with a thyroid disease while on employer-provided BlueCross BlueShield health insurance. I went to a regionally-known specialist in another city and paid $35 co-pay to have the condition confirmed. My stepmother also footed the bill for a sonogram - I am not sure how much that was. I then moved to another city, where I signed up for a continuation of coverage with BlueCross BlueShield, on an individual, private plan. This cost $90.00 per month (I was young and had no other medical problems to speak of). When I went in for a routine blood test to monitor my thyroid, about two months into the new plan, I received a bill for $187 (previously blood tests had been covered in full on my employer-paid BlueCross BlueShield). I was at that time earning about $1400 per month, take home. BlueCross BlueShield insisted that my thyroid condition was "pre-existing" and no treatments related to it would be covered for a year! Fortunately, I was made a permanent state employee shortly thereafter and my free, state-paid BlueCross BlueShield kicked in, which negated the "pre-existing condition" business, as there is no waiting period on state health insurance. However, it should also be noted that during the time I was self-insured, I was in fact employed a full 40 hours a week - in two different state jobs, 20 hours each, for the same state agency, in the same office. Nice, eh?
The NHS, while of course it has its problems, is far, far superior to any health care I have received in America, and I would trade my current, comparatively decent state-funded health insurance (I have what's now sadly considered in America a "good job") for the NHS in a heartbeat. I still have fantasies about somehow moving back to the UK to get this weight off my mind and I am not even SICK.
Even David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party (!) defends the NHS as necessary for a civilized society. This is the heir to the party of Margaret Thatcher! He would probably be considered a communist in America, so deeply ignorant and brainwashed are many here.
Our national retrogressive thinking on this issue is profoundly depressing to me.
$0.02
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