I was born in the UK and have experience of healthcare in Minnesota and California, as well as Britain, France, Holland and Spain.
Here’s some of my experiences of healthcare in the US.
Our son was born in Minneapolis, and the pregnancy was routine. We only have the one child so I have no point of comparison, but it seemed to me that the resources available for the birth were pretty impressive. It was a long labour and with the possibility of complications because of my wife’s small pelvic girdle. She had all manner of machines monitoring everything, and no shortage of attention from nursing staff as well as our own Ob-Gyn doctor.
Likewise, the pre-natal and post-natal care was fantastic.
Then playing soccer on the bone-hard pitches (it’s a summer sport in Minnesota!), I managed to sever my anterior cruciate ligament, so of course surgery was necessary. I got the name of surgeon who specialised in sporting injuries. I got a next-day appointment, and he arranged for next-week surgery. After surgery, I had people showing me how to walk, scheduled for a guy to come to my house to be measured for a knee brace, set up with physical therapy sessions, etc. The knee-brace btw was Kevlar, hand sprayed in my choice of colour scheme, came in a large holdall, with a little bag of accessories so I could change the action according to my needs. And at $1200, cost more than my car (OK I’m going back 30 years!) I remember very attentive staff, a bed with electrically operated everything, and morphine drips I didn’t need. This was followed by 3 months of physical therapy.
I have to smile when I read about people defending America’s healthcare industry, and putting down universal healthcare by saying things like “why should my hard-earned cash go to the benefit of others?” They are completely missing the point that this is almost a definition of insurance. Furthermore, who do they suppose was subsidising my celebrity surgeon, the space-age knee-brace, post-op therapy, and pharmaceutical requirements?
There are apparently around half a million ‘medical bankruptcies’ in America every year. The effect of this on them and their immediate families will be devastating. When you throw in the number of people denied health insurance or forced to accept higher premiums, or new exclusions because of their failing health, and that amounts to an awful lot of hardship.
Most industrialised nations consider that looking after the sick, the poor, and the plain down-on-their-luck is a minimum requirement for a civilised nation. It’s a shame that the issue has become politicised is the USA.
On behalf of myself and my family, I can have no complaints against the quality of healthcare in the US. Except when one considers the true costs…
