With Canada Day and Independence Day celebrated by our North American cousins this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I love about England and how proud I am of this country. These thoughts have coincided with the 60th anniversary of the NHS – our National Health Service. For those that don’t know, we in England have had a National Health Service which provides free care for all. Yes, I am proud to live in a country where:
- If I need to see a GP/family Dr I never have to think about what it will cost, co-pays or even can I afford to pay until my insurance reimburses me
- If I am referred to a specialist such as a neurologist or respirologist or obstetrician, I will not have to pay a penny
- If I am injured I don’t have to pay for the ambulance ride
- If I arrive at A& E (aka Emergency) I will have free care, free tests, free medications
- If I am admitted to hospital, I will not have to pay a penny or hope insurance covers me, or pay any co-pays, or switch hospitals to one my insurance accepts
- I will never see anyone waiting in the waiting room at a hospital because they can’t afford to pay
- I will never see the difference in care between a hospital that only accepts medi-care and one that accepts insurance
- If my future children need dentistry care, it will all be free
- If I need dentistry care it is heavily subsidised so that the average bill is only £44 = $88 which includes cleaning and cavities filled
- If my children need medication, or I am pregnant or breastfeeding or on low income/welfare or over 60 then all medications are free
- If I need medications, I only pay £7.10 = $14.20 no matter what the cost of the medication is, as it is all subsidised – this should be changing soon so that all medications are free
- If I had a baby I would have free midwifery care, pre and post birth and free visits from the Health Visitor until my child was 5!
- If I or anyone in my family needed physiotherapy or Occupational therapy or speech therapy it would all be free.
- If I or anyone in my family need immunizations there is no thought to cost as there isn’t any
- I don’t have to worry about whether I can afford the extra insurance premiums when deciding whether to expand my family
- I don’t have to worry about whether I will be able to continue to afford to pay for health insurance when I retire
- I don’t have to think about the possibility of ever facing bankruptcy do to hospital bills
There are so many other reasons to be proud of this country, over the year I am sure I will share more, but today as it is a very special Birthday I have focused on our health service. I have lived in other countries, I will never forget seeing people waiting in hospital in Washington for 3 or 4 days for treatment, I will never forget seeing a woman in Canada unable to get her finger sewn back on as she didn’t have a provincial health card (Canada does have a national health system based on the UK model, although becoming increasingly privatized, much more so than the UK and very dependent on which province you live in re what is covered, for example Midwifery is covered in Ontario but not in Alberta- but still they too should feel proud they do, although should certainly lobby for it to stop becoming privatized).
Happy Happy Birthday NHS!
I’m absolutely with you on this – I think the NHS is one of the great wonders of the modern age. I worry about bloggers that I know in other countries who are or have been going without health insurance. It’s not good.
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You are so blessed. I don’t know why we can’t get something like that in the USA. When my huband’s arota split –the bill totally off the roof. I love your list and maybe someday our country will follow through with national health care.
I agree Nichole, the fear when I lived on your side of the pond was always with me re health. I am very proud of England, I wish more Brits knew how how lucky we were and more Americans pushed for National Health Care!