The NHS & the United States of America

[FlashLackey]

With what kind of deductible? If you tell me none, then you have my vote for the new Health Care Czar. You've solved the problem.

It wasn't a great deductable. I could have paid more per month for a lower one. But, when you do the math, the higher monthly cost for a lower deductable just guarantees that you will pay for an injury or illness that you might not get. So, it's more efficient in the long run, if you are young and healthy, to pay the bigger deductables as needed.

The fact remains that you are maintaining an insurance policy that protects you from bankruptcy type costs while providing the option to go to any hospital you want, with "luxuries" such as bathrooms and choosing when to see the doctor or get treatment.

...and if you look at the figures by race
uninsured black people - 18.5 - 19%
uninsured hispanics - 32 - 35%

(http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthi...ric/index.html)

...so somebody is getting the rough end of the pineapple.

What percentage of those uninsured are so by choice?

It obviously is paid for somewhere along the line. It comes out of something we have called "National Insurance", or NI - essentially a tax.

Exactly. There is no free health care.

If you earn £30,000 ($50,000) a year, you'll pay £220 ($360) a month to NI.

Your employer also contributes, paying directing to the government – about £250 a month ($410). You never see that money, it doesn't appear on your payslip, it's just something employers have to do. (In return, if you're sick, the employer gets money back from the government to help with your sick pay.)

So, thats a total of $770 per month.

For that much, here you could have a policy with no deductable. You would also have the ability to choose your hospital, doctor, time of visits and treatments. A tv and bathroom could be expected as well.

My $360 a month pays for that, but I don't have to drive around south London trying to find a hospital and I don't get landed with a $15,000 bill. And if I loose my job tomorrow, I don't actually have to pay at all.

I normally see the US as being ahead in the game, but that's pretty shocking.

I'll take LRs word for it that his story is true. But, I've never seen or heard of insurance playing any role whatsoever in where you go in an emergency. In fact, the law is that hospitals can't turn a person away in the event of an emergency.

Our top-tax rate, if you earn over £37,500 ($62,000) is 40%. Our NI is 23.8%. Our VAT is 15%, but will go back up to 17.5% in January 2010. You pay council tax for the house you live in, which is based on where your house is and how big it is. We pay road tax for our cars, which for a 1.2 litre petrol car is about £115 a year. We pay VAT and fuel tax on petrol and diesel. So yeah, we're drowning in it.

In other words, LR missed a lot of things or was getting numbers from Michael Moore again.