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[RoseHeart]

Hi my name is roseheart, I live in the United States. I've been wanting to do this for a long time and maybe this will be a place to start because I feel like there's probably a lot of people outside of the US[on this forum]. I was wondering if you could tell me about your health care system just a summary of how it works and if you like it and if it's single payer or which type it is. Thank you!!!

[Levi]

I'm Canadian!

Um, I actually have almost no idea how my healthcare system works.  Even though that is where I'm employed... 

Its mostly free?  And if you have HIV then in British Columbia you'll probably get the highest quality care in the world.

[mainiac]

Damn BC deadbeats!

(I'm not actually from Ontario, I just like being salty).

[milo christiansen]

Do death rates among the elderly still spike at the end of the fiscal year in the UK or did you guys fix that at some point?

[Frumple]

... isn't the end of the fiscal year in the UK in april? I seem to remember that, anyway.

[milo christiansen]

And then I found this

[Arx]

I'm South African! And it's, uh, not actually the worst. You can go to a government clinic, in which case I believe you get free care. The quality ranges anywhere from decent to absolutely horrific (cockroaches someimes included). They're also often horribly overcrowded, but they are usually approximately available most places in the country - which is important, because Africa being what it is that can need to include random collections of tiny villages.

You can also pay a significant but usually manageable sum for private healthcare, which is usually of reliably high quality. Having insurance is very helpful - my family has a hospital plan, which doesn't cover random trips to the doctor but does cover anything that, well, puts you in hospital. The rates aren't as extortionate as I believe they are in the USA.

[milo christiansen]

Here in the US the rates are ridiculous because they expect your insurance company to pay. Free market health care is fine (great quality), but I would much rather they didn't scalp you quite so hard. On the other hand, you get what you pay for.

[Wolfhunter107]

And then I found this

It's absolutely true because I've read it in the Daily Mail.

[milo christiansen]

I found several other links too...

Anyway, I heard some truly terrible things about the UK NHS back in the 90s, so unless it is way better than it was then, I would fight tooth and nail before that came here. When you put the government in charge of health care you get government workers for health care workers, and we all know how efficient and caring the government is don't we?

We need a government (unless you want to live in some kind of libertarian hell-hole), but I don't want mine to be able to say whether I can get care, or what kind I can get.

[ChairmanPoo]

Fakeedit: am actually going to abstain from replying because the outrageous stuff being posted is making my BP spike

[mainiac]

Yeah everyone knows baby eating is the real solution.

[SirQuiamus]

mmmmmhhhh... granny stew...

[MorleyDev]

nothing stops non-citizens from flying over, receiving free treatment, and then pissing off back home.

Actually we have agreements with EEA countries to allow us to claim back their healthcare costs. We don't actually tend to do it because, I shit you not, it's not considered worth doing the paperwork.

Studies do disagree whether we still get more in NI taxes from EU members working in the UK than the NHS spends on EU members, which to me suggests the actual gain or loss is pretty small compares to other expenses for the NHS (source).

But yeah, general consensus is the NHS is not perfect but it is better than most other countries provide. American republicans often make false claims to argue against socialised healthcare, one American newspaper even suggested Stephen Hawking would be dead if he was British and treated under the NHS (source). Slight issue with that: He is British, and has stated he owes his life to the NHS.

[Neonivek]

I am surprised no one brought up the death panels in the UK. Basically people who decide who lives and who dies based on whether they believe they are a valuable asset to society.

Which to my knowledge flat out don't exist

But the USA sure thought it did.