Health Care in the UK

[calliesue]

Hello UK nurses,

I am in the US and I have been reading a lot of conflicting posts about health care in other countries. Most of these posts are written by Americans . I would like to know from nurses in the UK how you like your health care system. What are strengths/drawbacks.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions,

Calliesue

[ONC-RN]

I was born in N.Ireland, lived there, immigrated to Canada, lived there for 25 years and now I've lived and worked in the USA for 5 years so I think I'm qualified to speak about immigration (not to be confused with illegal immigration).

The US does a lousy job of enforcing it's southern border and so we pay billions for healthcare for illegals--it's disgusting that a self pay american citizen cannot get the same care as an illegal who mooches off Medi-Cal which is taxpayer funded healthcare.

Canada can be apathetic too as you can bring over your whole family once you're settled and the good Canadian citizens will pay for unemployment, etc.

So the British/American/Canadian dream is being stolen, not earned.

Am I being politically correct? No. Am I being truthful and saying what most nurses and doctors feel? Yes.

[MandaAnda]

I just wanted to make a couple of comments.

As for healthcare staff having to investigate whether someone was entitled to NHS care being a problem - certainly the money they would save the NHS by eliminating and/or charging these people would by far outweigh recruiting an extra member of staff to deal with this. The NHS tries to be taking seriously as a business, and if you wanna be a business, you gotta act like one.

Also, for the point made about someone saying they'd heard that orthodontic braces were a status symbol in America - I've never once heard that or got that feeling. You got braces if you had crooked teeth, end of. I hated having my braces, and I'm sure my mother hated the monthly trips to the orthodontist she had to take me on. But not only does a straight smile look nicer, it also enables you to clean your teeth properly, meaning you'll keep your own teeth for much longer in life (and that saves money on dentures and denture treatment).

[LiverpoolJane]

I think status symbol was a poor chioce of words, but from what I understand if you are poor in the US a childs teeth being straight is low on the list of the family priorities. I was brought up working class and had orthodontics come with a cost there was no way I would have gotten braces. We were probably the last family locally to get a colour TV!

My SIL - US born and bred - laughs about her mums obsession with all of her childrens teeth as they were growing up, desperate that they would not grow up with the dreaded "English teeth!" and from what I understand if you had braces you were considered to be quite well off. But things change and like having a colour TV is no longer an indicator of disposable income - may be it is mot considered quite so unusual these days in the US for all to have braces regardless of income?

I just wanted to make a couple of comments.

Also, for the point made about someone saying they'd heard that orthodontic braces were a status symbol in America - I've never once heard that or got that feeling. You got braces if you had crooked teeth, end of. I hated having my braces, and I'm sure my mother hated the monthly trips to the orthodontist she had to take me on. But not only does a straight smile look nicer, it also enables you to clean your teeth properly, meaning you'll keep your own teeth for much longer in life (and that saves money on dentures and denture treatment).

[cariad]

i am from the uk and do not have wonderful white straight teeth, in fact now that i have dental insurance in place over here, i will use it to get some work done, but there are loads of people over here who do not have good teeth, but the american viewpoint is that they have good white straight teeth and britain have awful teeth, which for the most part is true, of older uk people, but the generation of twenty-somethings in the uk had orthodontic treatment availble to them. although its not a status symbol, it is true that unless you come from a family where your parents work and have good insurance then you dont have money for braces, even then there are large co-pays, the insurance dont pay for all the treatment.

[JaneyW]

I was born in N.Ireland, lived there, immigrated to Canada, lived there for 25 years and now I've lived and worked in the USA for 5 years so I think I'm qualified to speak about immigration (not to be confused with illegal immigration).

The US does a lousy job of enforcing it's southern border and so we pay billions for healthcare for illegals--it's disgusting that a self pay american citizen cannot get the same care as an illegal who mooches off Medi-Cal which is taxpayer funded healthcare.

Canada can be apathetic too as you can bring over your whole family once you're settled and the good Canadian citizens will pay for unemployment, etc.

So the British/American/Canadian dream is being stolen, not earned.

Am I being politically correct? No. Am I being truthful and saying what most nurses and doctors feel? Yes.

Those of us who see this on a daily basis and pay a premium in our taxes need to start being more politically incorrect, IMHO. We just sent off our quarterly taxes and it is just painful!! If we could keep more of it, I would probably have some work done to my house (employ people) and maybe take a vacation (again, stimulating the economy), but I do not have that choice. And if Obama gets elected I will have even less.

I don't know the answer about our healthcare situation here in the US, but we need to remember that we are much larger and more diverse than other countries who have it. We can't compare apples to oranges.

[RGN1]

i am from the uk and do not have wonderful white straight teeth, in fact now that i have dental insurance in place over here, i will use it to get some work done, but there are loads of people over here who do not have good teeth, but the american viewpoint is that they have good white straight teeth and britain have awful teeth, which for the most part is true, of older uk people, but the generation of twenty-somethings in the uk had orthodontic treatment availble to them. although its not a status symbol, it is true that unless you come from a family where your parents work and have good insurance then you dont have money for braces, even then there are large co-pays, the insurance dont pay for all the treatment.

yeah, i'm sure my future canadian dentist will be getting to grips with me too once i'm registered!

i have good,strong teeth with hardly any fillings at all but my parents never took me to complete my orthodontic work. at the time i didn't push it either as i hated those braces & it affected my clarinet playing - i was studying for grade 8 at the time. the result is a not so straight set of gnashers - they're not horrendous but it would be kind of nice to have them straighter i guess.

luckily all my kids seem to be fine - my 15 year old in particular has beautiful, straight, white teeth with no fillings. the others are still getting theirs so too early to tell if they'll need braces. the eldest won't for sure though.