Americans, did you know our National Health Service that we have in the UK is actually awesome?

@Patriot96 nope, did you hear that from Trump. I heard that when he was president, he used to shit the bed.

@Jm31xxx nope that was yo mama

@Jm31xxx first hand experience of a friend in uk

@Carla Such a shame. Was making the point to OP about having European hybrid healthcare, but not American healthcare

@BritishFailedAesthetic i don't really know the ins and outs of your or other European nations.
I do know with insurance premiums, the money we spend on medicaid and emergency health care for those that have no insurance and no assets, we could easily afford national healthcare.
We all are often reminded that we are the wealthiest country in the world. Odd how we are also one of the least healthy.
I mean...we are a country that allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise their meds in all forms. Nothing like seeing an advert for psoriasis medication, with many nasty side affects, while watching csi.

@BritishFailedAesthetic Not all of Europe has a hybrid system and there are substantial differences between those countries that do. Here in Norway the system is essentially the same as the UK except that we pay a fee each time we visit a doctor or go for an outpatient MRI or X-ray or oter examination. About 20 GBP to visit a GP or get an MRI unless you are under 18 or pregnant. But it is capped at about 200 GBP per year.

The difference between the UK and Norway as far as national health is concerned is that it is run better and is much less user hostile. i can book appointments online, renew prescriptions online, pick up prescriptions at any chemist anywhere in the country with no paperwork.

If my local hospital cannot do a procedure within the defined deadlines then I can find a hospital elsewhere in the country that can do it and my local health organization has to pay both the other hospital and pay my expenses to get there and accommodation if necessary. Norway also has arrangements to send patients abroad when it is cheaper than doing operations in Norway or where the foreign hospital has better facilities or skills. They even have a place in Spain for people who need warm weather to recover from serious illness, with a mixture of Norwegian and Spanish staff.

In short Norway's health service is in essence very like the UK but it works. It also does that while respecting the working time directive. The average working week of full time hospital doctors is under fifty hours.

It's far from perfect, patients do occasionally end up sleeping in corridors for a night, but it doesn't seem to be suffering from the huge backlogs, lack of beds, and A&E troubles that the UK NHS does.

If it can be done in Norway why can't it be done in the much richer UK?

@SheCallsMeCrushDaddy are there such people? I don't think there are. You've been lied to.

@SheCallsMeCrushDaddy Even when the top marginal tax rate in the US was over 90% still no one paid half of their income to the government.

@RedBaron yeah but sometimes I hear people (usually on the right) badmouthing it

@Keeper we deal with it

@MarmeeMarch The problem with the US system comes from both ends and the middle. Taxation is under greater pressure in the US because defence speding is the same as the next nine nations combined, leaving less money in the pot to start with. Then the price gouging of the less regulated medical and pharma businesses squeezes the other end. Then add back the number of legal and insurance snouts in the trough from the letigious and profit based insurance multiple providers the US has. Of course, with a single govt provider, all those industries would be subject to oversight they just wouldnt tolerate...😷

@MarmeeMarch I'm talking about overall outcomes - life expectancy and general health. For example, the US has one of the highest maternal death rates of any developed country.

@LiliththeEternal maybe you can't think at all