UK private medical healthcare is really only available for elective surgery (private GPs are very thin on the ground and why would you need one anyway?), it's a way of avoiding a waiting list.
If you are in a car smash, you will be taken to the local NHS hospital as it will be the only option.
I had BUPA cover from my employer but never used it lol. Pregnancy not covered anyway.
The other difference is that to have any credibility in the UK, consultants have to work in the state sector so their private work is just a sideline - this means that although you won't get hotel style care unless you pay extra for it in the private wing of an NHS hospital, the surgeon operating on you could be the best in his field, NHS or private.

NB I would have no qualms in paying for one-off procedures/ops if I felt NHS were letting me down in any way, assuming I had the money in the bank.

To the USA poster: it used to be much worse, I can remember when an outpatient clinic was so uncustomer-focused that they booked all the patients in for the same appt time lol (I'm talking 1970s).

Interesting to hear that the general consensus from Americans is that NHS is a lot better than the US system.

I don't think that's the case. Most of the people posting are Brits who've moved to the US, although some of us are now US citizens.

Denise, be fair. Having trained as a CNA in your 20's isn't at all relative to training today. This is like me talking about banking when I was in my 20's. 30 years ago. Things are just as different in finance as they are in healthcare. Why, 30 years ago in the US, I had free health insurance through my employer in the US! Remember those days?

Anyway, my husband trained as a CNA in the US last year. His first job lasted 7 weeks because he wasn't "fast" enough hustling the patients around. Even though he was told the patients and their families loved his gentle disposition. Not very "patient centered" in my opinion.

I'm one of the US statistics - the 15% with no health cover. The NHS looks pretty good to me from where I sit, even if I had coverage in the US. I'm a little tired of the concept that I must "earn" the right to be sick.

And as far as you having been "fortunate" to not have yet been in an NHS hospital, well, I don't know what to say to you about that. You and I are about the same age so I'm pretty sure we are both going to need the doctor sooner or late. At least yours won't bankrupt you.

This is my biggest beef. For years and years I barely saw a doctor but age is catching up with me, and in the last few years I've had all kinds of things that need checking out. No matter what I go to my GP for, I can guarantee she's going to order scans and x-rays and an array of expensive tests.

Latest example ... I had a persistent cough this spring. I know I suffer from allergies and my last doctor gave me medication that helped a few years ago. He's retired now, so I go see his replacement. She waves off my talk of allergies and sends me for a lung function test, a chest x-ray and a CT scan. Because she's done this before and it's been a huge waste of time, I did nothing. Sure enough, a month later the cough was gone.

Someone has to pay for those unnecessary tests (and for all the follow-up tests on incidental discoveries that come out of the tests and prove to be also nothing). As a Brit I see that as wasteful and damaging. But I think Americans feel that kind of testing represents good care and that not to get that is neglect.

From reading your old posts, you used the NHS and welfare (would have had to declare your assetts as less than 6k) as soon as you entered the UK last year: so I'm not sure why you still think the American healthcare service is better than the NHS? Can you walk straight into the US and get these things? I assumed you have to be working in the US to get healthcare in the US; is that correct?

Yes and I think a lot of the reason is that she wants to protect herself from a lawsuit, should you indeed have something wrong.
So the place that tests you gains financially even if she does not.

NZ has a mixed system that doesn't work that well as the waiting lists in the public sector can be really long (much worse than UK). Even with private cover you often have to wait 1 month to see a specialist if not urgent but that's because doctors are lured overseas for higher salaries.
It's not all bad though, you can see a GP sameday as people are put off by the charges and only go when absolutely necessary, blood tests ordered by your GP are free, prescriptions are subsidised a lot, mammograms, vaccinations are free etc etc, kids under 6 GPs are free. All emergency care is free.

I don't get why the French system is so highly regarded, it strikes me you still end up with a large bill and lots of paperwork despite paying high income tax!

The last UK government (New Labour) proposed a charge for people to see GPs, about £20 a visit as I recall; as they wanted those who used the NHS the most, to pay for it. They said it would also stop people going to their GP when they didn't really need to. The general consesus from the public seemed to be that that would be ok with them as long as the charge applied to everyone (no exceptions).


The French healthcare system is far superior care than the NHS because they charge for it and they also check to make sure that people who can't use it for free, don't. They also have different rules to the UK about who can and can't use their healthcare.

I know they are also trying to ban Brits who take advantage of the EU rules and are living in France on UK welfare, and use their helathcare without paying taxes to France. The new changes in the UK welfare system, should help France with that problem. I know France is keen on EU rules changes too, as is the UK and Germany.

I can tell you a little bit about my own NHS experience with my daughter when she was a baby. She was born with a congenial birth defect, called Pierre Robin Sequence. Basically it involved an underdeveloped lower jaw and a cleft palate. From the word go we have received very good care. We had a cleft specialist nurse assigned to us, who once my baby was released from hospital, travelled from London to Canterbury at least 3x per week to come and see us, monitored her feeding and breathing. Once her palate surgery was due, she got operated on by one of the best and most experienced plastic surgeons in the country (at that stage he was the chair of the British Society of Plastic Surgeons). She attended a cleft clinic every three months where she was seen by her surgeon, a speech therapist, an audiologist, an orthodontist and a child phycologist. We were also seen by a geneticist and had genetic testing done at Guys hospital to determine whether other syndromes were involved. None of this cost us a penny. At the time we were not British citizens. I gratefully accepted every bit of help I got.

Regarding her jaw: it is normal for the jaws of children born with this condition to grow out on its own, usually by the time they are 5 they should have a normal profile. My daughter's jaw grew rapidly and by the time she was 2 you wouldn't notice anything unless you knew of her condition.

I have read widely about her condition and became active on a number of chat forums for parents when she was a baby. In the US they do something called a 'jaw distraction'. This procedure involves putting screws into a baby's jaw to bring it forward. In theory this is done to assist when a baby has breathing difficulties, but it seemed to me that the procedure is followed regardless of whether a baby has breathing problems or not. My own daughter's initial breathing difficulties were sorted out with a simple nasal prong, which opened her airway and which she'd worn until she was 4 months old. The jaw distraction is a procedure hardly done in the UK. Why would anyone want to perform such a major surgery on a baby when the odds are that their jaw would grow out on its own without surgical interference? And obviously parents PAY a lot for this - I know of parents who have lost their homes due to the medical expenses. Whose interest is being served here?

I'm forever grateful for the fantastic and conservative care we have had in the UK. Today my daugther is a healthy normal 6 year old.

Oh my word, sorry for the long rambling!!

When we were back in the UK three weeks ago, my BIL had just come out of two week stay in hospital for a bad bout of cellulitis. During his first few days at home, an NHS district nurse called at his house EVERY DAY to re-do the dressing on his leg. She would go back and report to a doctor, and bring a new scrip the next day if necessary. After about six days of this, she started coming round every two days, then three.

This simply does not happen in the US.

Yes it does. I live in the same state that DDL just moved from. Last year my husband had an abscess on the back of his thigh, which turned into cellulitis very quickly. He went to the doctor, and was in the outpatient surgery unit the next day having it drained. The doctor didn't close the wound because the hole was quite deep, so the doc packed it with an iodoform dressing. The nurse came out every day and took out the old dressing, and repacked it. After about 4 trips, she showed me how to do it, and it healed up by granulation. I know loads of people that have IV antibiotics at home, and other such nursing care. Hospice, etc. is done at home through nurses.

I read a few posts ago that Cheers DW popped into the hospital for cataract surgery. My mum in UK waited a year for one cataract to be done, then 8 months for the other. While she was waiting for the first op she went legally blind, and was housebound (she also had glaucoma - which was not diagnosed by her optician until she had lost a lot of her sight).

When she got over that, she had a hip replacement for terrible arthritis. She waited almost 2 years for that. She went into an orthopedic hospital, and had a heart attack 24 hours after the surgery and died. They didn't do any proper tests to evaluate her heart, and the ortho hospital didn't have the staff or equipment to help her at 1 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Anecdotal stories are stupid - my story is no different than anyone else, it's just a story. I think the NH coverage for all is the only way to go, it is wonderful, but not necessarily better care. Personally, when I am on Medicare, my health services will be provided in the USA. Their ain't no such thing as a free lunch!

SallySimmons was complaining of the doctor wanting to do tests because she had a cough. Sally, by her own admission, is in her 50s, and has a long-term history of quite heavy smoking. This test could diagnose lung cancer, and it could save her life. I call that preventive medicine. If Sally isn't worried about having lung cancer from smoking, that is her right. Lung cancer cannot be diagnosed in early stages, except by tests, as her doctor wanted to do. If her cough comes back, well it might be too late.

Currently my gran is in the hospital. She has dementia, but they are trying to keep her in her own home for as long as possible because she really doesn't want to go into a home. She's gets 3 visits a day from social services carers but she's in the hospital because she fell late at night and was still there when they found her the next morning.

Now they want to let her out, but need to make sure she's taken care of at home, so her visits will be bumped to 4 a day. A physiotherapist came home with her yesterday to observe her at home and has ordered all kinds of fittings for her home to make it easier for her to get about. In addition, they are fitting an alarm system and she will wear a bracelet that senses her movements. If she falls again, they will call and ask on the speaker system 'are you OK?' If she doesn't answer, someone will come round to check on her.

The downside of all this is that it will take about a week to organize and she has to stay in hospital until then - that seems a small downside to me.

oops accidental double post. Sorry!

Actually, I'm not in my 50s, by my own admission or anyone else's, but thanks for aging me

I have no problem with tests when they're necessary but common sense needs to be applied also. I have allergies. It was allergy season. Try medication for a week or two and see what happens then order tests if that doesn't work. I guarantee that cough will come back - next May.

Because most people think the way you do, all our costs keep shooting up. A test for this, a test for that, a scan here, a scan there - hey, it's just preventative medicine. But we simply can't afford to keep going with that approach. The end result will be that your employer will cut back further and further on the benefits they offer, until you find yourself paying out of pocket for all those tests.

As for me, I do not have the luxury of being covered by my employer's insurance. I pay for my own insurance - this makes me very easy to get rid of if my costs get too high. I am painfully aware of this every time another test is ordered and that's why I don't just run and have them all done.

I can't imagine what that must be like; to have to think about your finances before you dial for an ambulance.