Dan725

To echo other people, the kicker for me is the holiday entitlement, or lack of. 2 weeks off a year, have to work 6 months straight before you get just one week, it's utter bollocks when you've been used to 5-6 weeks a year. It really hits home over here and adds to the cut off feeling - you just don't get a chance to pop home.

There is also the feeling of fragility with some jobs here, it's not as secure a work environment as in Europe.

Another thing worth mentioning is the obsessiveness by many employers over here about college degrees and GPA, etc. To explain, in the UK if you had a couple of candidates going for a job (outside of degree only fields like medicine etc), one with 10 years experience the other with a degree and no experience, it's likely that the experienced person will get the job. A degree serves more as a jump start.

Over here, it seems that some employers will immediately rule you out if you do not have a degree, despite your experience. Then you have to get paper qualifications for this, that and the other, making the system very burocratic. In the UK, I reckon more value is placed on your performance on the job, it's not so obsessive about bits of paper.

I reckon a lot of this is because they are kind of missing an education level - here it goes high school dropout! (16yr old), High school grad (18 yr old), Degree(21+yr old). Compare with UK where you can come out and do fine with a decent set of GCSEs at 16, do very well with A levels at 18, or get a real headstart with a degree.

CaliforniaBride

Interesting and accurate observation.

Partystar

No one was giving me data, the stats are produced by a computer transaction that takes seconds. Also, the stats had nothing to do with job cuts, it was outpatient/inpatient waiting lists that I made shorter by running more clinics, getting more doctors & surgeons so the patients didn't have to wait so long, so nothing to do with job cuts, we actually employed more people because of it. I think our trust was great, I worked very hard at what I did for the NHS & saw the benefits of what I did for the British people.

That's awful about Woodseys Granddad & your Dad, no one should have to suffer because a trust hasn't got their act together, its bullsh*t & I hope that the trust gets reprimanded, I'm truely sorry for your loss.

Partystar

Yep, hubby took his annual leave & sick days before he gave his notice at his old job, if he hadn't, he'd have lost it. Very weird.

Partystar

If you have thousands & thousands to spend on health care, then it's fine. My mother would either be thousands in debt or I'd be dead by now, if I'd have grown up here. I have had more than 15 operations since I was born, I have many medical problems & I'm only 23. My Dad abandoned us when we were little, so my mum was forced to be a single parent, he paid $14 a month for us 4 kids, how far would that have got us here? For me, I thank God for growing up in England with the NHS.

I dread to think what will happen to me when I need a valve replacement, we have no insurance & can't get any for a few months, so hopefully it won't happen before then, otherwise I'm dead, but hey, fingers crossed!

psb182

the key words are "if you pay"......and yes I PAY through the nose.........I guess for you then everything is fine and dandy as you get it through your employer and it is subsidised.........I pay $1000 per month....no I don't work for a big company...........I guess the healthcare system is great here if you are

1, young and healthy
2, work for a big company
3, have no pre existing conditions

EVERYONE else is SCREWED period

Elvira

How can you say that the SYSTEM works, merely because it happens to work for YOU?

You might want to look at this series of articles published by the San Francisco Chronicle a year ago:

Why health care costs are rising fast. Plus the Bush and Kerry health care plans.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGII96CVP1.DTL
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGII96D031.DTL

Retirees hit hard as health benefits are lost.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...UGMN979TS1.DTL

Health care tops the labor-management agenda.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...UGMN97GRD1.DTL

How Canada provides health care for all.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...GR28JFEN59.DTL

Employees are digging deeper to pay for health insurance.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...G7T8E81H63.DTL

Quote:
"The United States spends nearly $5,000 per person on health care -- more than twice the amount of some other industrialized countries. But it's not making us live any longer. Canada, for example, spends about 60 percent less per person than the United States but has longer life expectancies.
-- The number of people without health coverage rose to more than 45 million nationwide in 2003, 15.6 percent of the population compared to 15.2 percent in 2002. California is home to the greatest number, with 6.4 million uninsured, or 18.2 percent of the population."

fatbrit

Exactly! The system is even more screwed than the NHS, around about double screwed going by the totally out-of-control costs. If it's working for you at the moment, make sure you get all your stuff done now. Coz the whole stupid system is very close to completely breaking down.

psb182

one word answer..........lawyers

fatbrit

Not the only answer. They are certainly a big problem but...

The biggest problem it has is it is touted as a free market system but is no such thing. There is nothing built in to the system to moderate prices because there is no true competition. The system therefore eats a greater increasing percentage of US GDP every year while providing less and less.

psb182

no it is not the only problem but malpractice insurance is through the roof and the root of that problem is lawyers

Eskimo

correct.. I am all these things and I never said anything any different .. wait till you are back to the UK and then drop me a note and tell how great you think the NHS is. Its all a lottery my friend, income = post code = quality of care...in the UK

Eskimo

as I said " my experience here versus my experience in UK - the US works the UK doesn't."

not sure why I would want to read your articles ? what are you trying to change here - my experience

Elvira

One small example of how ridiculous sums are wasted:

Every health plan has a tiered system of co-pays for prescription drugs. Typically it is around $10 for generic drugs, around $15-25 for that particular plan's 'preferred' branded drugs, and $30-50 for other branded drugs that are licensed by the FDA but are not on the plan's preferred list.

[How do drugs get on a plan's preferred list? Now that is a completely different topic and has to do with pharmaceutical company marketing and 'other topics'.]

The problem is that doctors cannot keep up with which plan approves which drug, so they prescribe whatever they feel 'comfortable with'.

[Another topic: how do pharmaceutical companies ensure that doctors get to 'feel comfortable' with their drugs. Sponsored Continuous medical education meetings in 'nice locations' are just one of many approaches...)

Anyway, Doc prescribes Drug X. Patient goes to have it filled. Finds the co-pay is $40. If either the patient is clued up or the pharmacist can be bothered, one of them will ring the Doc to see if a similar drug that has a lower co-pay can be substituted.

In practice, how often does this happen?

Example: No doubt you've all seen those TV adverts for the 'purple pill' - Nexium. Docs are prescribing it like smarties because (a) patients have seen the ad and want it, (b) because they too have been exposed to saturation advertising.

Fact: Nexium is a clone of an older, much cheaper drug called Prilosec. All the manufacturer did was 'tweak' it a little. True, it is a little bit more effective, and it has a tiny amount fewer side effects. But the vast majority of patients would not know the difference.

This scenario is replicated times and times again, with countless drugs and millions of patients. End result: an obscene amount of waste of $$$.

Now, in the UK, many GPs are using a system called PRODIGY which offers options of alternative prescriptions to physicians. If nothing else, it serves as a prompt to consider possible alternatives and not write the first drug name that comes to mind (which may have been influenced by whichever ad the Doc had most recently seen).

And then there is the issue of 'defensive medicine' - another source of lots of waste.

But I gotta go now - I'm probably boring everyone now, and the lads want supper!

Elvira

No - just want you to look at the bigger picture. Your experience is just that - YOUR experience. You were extrapolating from your experience to the SYSTEM as a whole. You are clearly an intelligent bloke, so you know that this is not a valid pathway!

Anyway, I do not want to argue, so PACE - yes?