valentinebaby wrote:killjoy wrote:Not all of us want the gov't running health care telling us what doctor we have to see or if we can have a treatment or not.Besides....other than the military...show me one thing the gov't runs that's worth a damn? Give me the private sector any day.
Okay true. But there are some plus sides to it. It would just be nice not to have to deal with it and wanting to rip out your hair half the time trying to figure all this crap out.
Definitely has plus sides... I've grown up with the UK National Health Service (NHS) and I wouldn't trade it for a US-style system if you paid me

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I have never had a doctor tell me what treatment I can or cannot have; I can choose my doctor if I like (up until now you had to register with a doctor within your local area, but now they are changing it so you can register wherever you like. Even so, there are about 10 different doctors I could chose from in my area if I so wished); I have never had to wait more than 2 days to get an appointment (unless I choose to book it for a particular day) and I have not been kept waiting more than 20 minutes to see a doctor once I have arrived for my appointment. When I go to visit the doctor, I am usually in and out of his office within 10 minutes and I don't have to pay a penny for it. I will never have to worry that I might go bankrupt/lose my house for the sake of paying for healthcare, nor will I have to worry about not being insured if I lose my job or run into financial trouble.
For the first 18 years of my life, I got completely free healthcare - free doctor's appointments, free hospital treatment, free prescriptions, free vaccinations, free eye tests, free glasses, free dental care, free orthodontic care etc.
In the last 8 years, I have spent (upfront, out of pocket expenses (converted into dollars to make it easier)):
Prescriptions: $30 (the majority of the prescriptions I get are free and the ones that aren't are only $11 each)
Dental care: $200 (8 check-ups, 4 fillings)
Eye tests: $50 (5 tests, but I had vouchers for free eye tests/half-price eye tests)
Glasses: $300 (three pairs of glasses)
So, in total, 26 years of perfectly good healthcare has cost me (out of pocket) about $600. I've only been paying taxes for 4 years, so I haven't had to pay all that much out of my income so far either.
(P.S. Sorry, the whole healthcare debate gets me quite defensive as a lot of the recent US media coverage of the NHS has been inaccurate and the system is being made out to be much worse than it actually is. Not to say it doesn't have its flaws, but it's nowhere near as bad some US campaigns would have you believe).