A few hours after I came home from the hospital with my newborn baby girl, Kaela, there was a knock on my front door. My mom answered and saw a man standing there. She asked, “Who are you?” “I’m Dr. May”, he answered. “Why are you here?” “I’ve come to check on the new baby.” My mother’s mouth gaped in amazement. She couldn’t believe the doctor had made a house call just to see a perfectly healthy baby that had already been checked out thoroughly at the hospital before we left. Dr. May likes babies and makes this extra effort simply because he wants to. He isn’t obligated to or required to, he just does it because he cares and is our family doctor. He did the same when I came home with my second daughter, Sophia. No charge. In addition, for the first few months after giving birth, a health care visitor came to my house once a week to check up on the baby, administer any injections and make sure that the feeding was going well and the baby was gaining weight at the correct rate as well as make sure that my womb was contracting properly and I was healing well. These nurses assure you that they expect to see you in bathrobes with hair a mess and don’t want you to get dressed up for them. And they understand how tired you are and what a hassle getting to the doctor’s office is when you have a newborn. How fabulous a service is that! And guess what, I didn’t spend a penny for it.
My mother just arrived to spend two months with us. She neglected to renew her high blood pressure medication and arrived with just ten days supply of medication. Her plan was to cut the pills in half and hope to survive. I was horrified when I heard her plan because she has been on this medication for years, has not changed her weight or diet and is at high risk for a heart attack. You don’t have to be a life coach to see that her plan was abysmal at best. After a sleepless night spent worrying that my mother would die, I realized that I needed to do something. I booked an appointment with our family doctor. I was given an appointment for 5:00 p.m. that very day. We arrived just before 5:00 p.m. and at 5:02 p.m. the doctor was ready to see her. He asked what he could do for her and she asked if he could renew her prescription for two months. Without further ado he wrote out the slip and off we went to the pharmacist next door who filled it in five minutes. By 5:20 p.m. we were on our way home with medication in hand. There was no charge for any of this. In fact, there are no cash registers or credit card machines in the doctor’s reception so you couldn’t pay even if you tried as they have no way of taking money. And, since my mom is a senior citizen, there was no charge for medication at the pharmacy either. They just handed her the bag with her pills and off she went.
The other day I had to go take my daughter to the emergency room. Instead of asking for my insurance or credit card, the receptionist asked what the problem was. I was seen in order of priority which was about a half-hour because it wasn’t a life threatening issue.
Now you might be thinking, Talane must be rolling in dough to afford that level of health care or that I have some super duper insurance policy that you’ve never heard of. Nope. I’m living in England and this level of care is standard. These weren’t just flukes. I’ve been here five years and I’ve never once had to wait for a doctor’s appointment for more than 20 minutes and when that happened the doctor apologized profusely for making me wait. You can opt to use private medicine here if you wish, but the standard care is so good I haven’t seen the need to. As some of my readers may know, I’m an American who married an Englishman and moved from New York to England and I have been running my NYC based life coaching company from abroad for five years now. In this time, I’ve also had two babies, Kaela and Sophia who are now 4 and 2 years old. I’ve been reading in the UK press a lot about American’s using the word “socialism” as if it were a dirty word. Before I moved to the UK, I assumed that the US health care was the best in the world and the reason that it was the best was because it was a private system, not a socialized system. That competition ensured the best care and the best doctors. I assumed that anything that was socialized and run by the government couldn’t possibly be as good or as efficient as private medicine or private anything else for that matter. How wrong could I be! My years in England have completely changed my perspective. Socialized medicine is wonderful—at least in England. I never in my life would have imagined I’d say that, but I will shout it from the rooftops. I love it! It is such a good feeling to know that if, heaven forbid, something catastrophic should happen, it won’t ruin us financially. In fact, the one thing putting me off about returning to America is that I’d have huge health insurance costs with two small munchkins. You don’t need health insurance here in the UK. I don’t have it. They just cut out the middle men and pay the doctor’s directly. What a concept. And what is most surprising to me is that is feels so much more democratic…so much more equal. Everyone gets great treatment. The poor people don’t have to wait for hours in some second-rate clinic. Children and elderly don’t pay for medication. No one takes a job here in order to get medical benefits. And yet, I personally know people in the US who have taken certain jobs just so they can get medical benefits and coverage. My own aunt could not get health insurance or benefits at her company because she is obese. Isn’t this discrimination? My eldest sister is completely uncovered because she can’t afford to pay for health insurance. How is that better? Now that I’ve seen and experienced how wonderful, how civilized, how democratic, how reassuring and how fair socialized medicine can be, I’d never use the word socialism with disdain. Don’t believe me…come over here and break a leg.
Warmest,
Talane
Copyright © 2009 by Talane LLC. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment