Do we really want National Health Care in America?
I married a British citizen, Scottish, 7 years ago this September. He was under the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. We went thru all of the proper Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) channels unlike many aliens today but that’s another beef, for another time.
After a few years of living here my husband started having some medical problems and ended up seeing a doctor here in America, only after I was able to provide insurance thru my work. After many tests, procedures and finally a surgery we learn that my husband has a problem with one of his kidneys but that’s not the best of it, he has only one functioning kidney. He had never been tested and told that while being treated in the UK. He has a syndrome, Kallman’s, at birth and many of his current health issues could have been prevented, this was stated by the doctors here in America, had the doctors taken care of him when he was born. He was effectively used, as a child, as a human guinea pig in the UK to study Kallman’s syndrome.
On May 26, 2009, my in-laws arrived for vacation from Scotland. They were to be here for one month. Fortunately, due to their age (both 75), they bought travelers insurance coverage for their trip. We were at our last weekend and were planning the best last weekend ever. Violet, my mother in law, wanted to go to the shops in San Destin to buy last minute gifts. We were in PetSmart in Destin where she became dizzy and disoriented. We left there thinking that she had possibly gotten a touch of heat stroke and headed home. We put her in the front seat so that she could have air conditioning.
We got her home and put her to bed with an ice pack for her head. She laid down and aside from a little nausea rested thru the night. At 2:30 am she got up to go to the restroom and still had the headache but seemed fine according to my father in law at that time.
When I got up on Sunday morning, June 21st, she had gotten worse since 2:30 am and I woke my husband to take her to the hospital. We tried to get her dressed but realized she had, had a stroke. We gave her a soluble aspirin while we waited for the paramedics, who took just minutes to arrive. They life flighted her to Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH). She was there in 8 minutes. They started working on her immediately and found that she had a massive stroke engulfing the entire right side of her brain. She died 4 days after being admitted. Had she been in the UK she would not have even made it to the hospital.
I don’t blame the NHS that she had a stroke. That’s in God’s hands. What I do blame them for is not putting her on proper meds to prevent this stroke. The doctors at SHH were surprised to find out that she had not been on blood thinners considering her heart problem and family history. Or not been fitted with a pacemaker for arrhythmia. She was on a 75 mg aspirin. That’s it!
She had not been seen for 2 years prior to her visit to America. She asked to be seen before they travelled, but they said the Doctor stated that he was too busy. She had never had a CT scan in the UK. She once wore a Holter Monitor many years ago that found she had an arrhythmia. She was put on medications for that and basically not monitored unless she demanded to be seen. Even that took more than demanding once. Especially at her age. The elderly receive a level of care that would be unheard of in America and should be in any country. If it were not for the elderly this country would not be the great country that it is.
Everyone should have health care. However once the government gets involved there are too many managers and not enough doctors. The doctors hands are tied as to what they can do, even what they can prescribe. The frustration of the red tape, numbers of patients and lack of pay send good doctors packing to another country to practice medicine. Why would we want the Government to run our health care? I know I don’t!
My last example of why we do NOT want NHS is my father in law. He is 75 years of age. He has NEVER had a blood test. He has NEVER had a urinalysis. He has NEVER had a check of his prostrate. Our system and doctors would start these checks at 50 years of age for a baseline.
Again I am faced with approaching the INS thru the proper procedures and waiting for several months while they process an application to bring my father in law here, during which time he is subject to the lack of care of the NHS which may cause his health to deteriorate. There will be no one in the UK to look after him. To make sure he takes his meds and doesn’t take a turn until we can get thru all of the paper work and money required to get him back here to live with us. Some illegal’s have no qualms about not following the rules and moving to America, and abusing our health care system, however I have always made every effort as an American to do the right thing.
A National Heathcare system is in theory a morally good idea, however in any country that has them, the level of care provided suffers from the government and bureaucratic overload of paperwork, budgets and managers that take the focus away from the medical staff caring for the patients and result in more skilled doctors leaving due to lack of morale.
I married a British citizen, Scottish, 7 years ago this September. He was under the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. We went thru all of the proper Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) channels unlike many aliens today but that’s another beef, for another time.
After a few years of living here my husband started having some medical problems and ended up seeing a doctor here in America, only after I was able to provide insurance thru my work. After many tests, procedures and finally a surgery we learn that my husband has a problem with one of his kidneys but that’s not the best of it, he has only one functioning kidney. He had never been tested and told that while being treated in the UK. He has a syndrome, Kallman’s, at birth and many of his current health issues could have been prevented, this was stated by the doctors here in America, had the doctors taken care of him when he was born. He was effectively used, as a child, as a human guinea pig in the UK to study Kallman’s syndrome.
On May 26, 2009, my in-laws arrived for vacation from Scotland. They were to be here for one month. Fortunately, due to their age (both 75), they bought travelers insurance coverage for their trip. We were at our last weekend and were planning the best last weekend ever. Violet, my mother in law, wanted to go to the shops in San Destin to buy last minute gifts. We were in PetSmart in Destin where she became dizzy and disoriented. We left there thinking that she had possibly gotten a touch of heat stroke and headed home. We put her in the front seat so that she could have air conditioning.
We got her home and put her to bed with an ice pack for her head. She laid down and aside from a little nausea rested thru the night. At 2:30 am she got up to go to the restroom and still had the headache but seemed fine according to my father in law at that time.
When I got up on Sunday morning, June 21st, she had gotten worse since 2:30 am and I woke my husband to take her to the hospital. We tried to get her dressed but realized she had, had a stroke. We gave her a soluble aspirin while we waited for the paramedics, who took just minutes to arrive. They life flighted her to Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH). She was there in 8 minutes. They started working on her immediately and found that she had a massive stroke engulfing the entire right side of her brain. She died 4 days after being admitted. Had she been in the UK she would not have even made it to the hospital.
I don’t blame the NHS that she had a stroke. That’s in God’s hands. What I do blame them for is not putting her on proper meds to prevent this stroke. The doctors at SHH were surprised to find out that she had not been on blood thinners considering her heart problem and family history. Or not been fitted with a pacemaker for arrhythmia. She was on a 75 mg aspirin. That’s it!
She had not been seen for 2 years prior to her visit to America. She asked to be seen before they travelled, but they said the Doctor stated that he was too busy. She had never had a CT scan in the UK. She once wore a Holter Monitor many years ago that found she had an arrhythmia. She was put on medications for that and basically not monitored unless she demanded to be seen. Even that took more than demanding once. Especially at her age. The elderly receive a level of care that would be unheard of in America and should be in any country. If it were not for the elderly this country would not be the great country that it is.
Everyone should have health care. However once the government gets involved there are too many managers and not enough doctors. The doctors hands are tied as to what they can do, even what they can prescribe. The frustration of the red tape, numbers of patients and lack of pay send good doctors packing to another country to practice medicine. Why would we want the Government to run our health care? I know I don’t!
My last example of why we do NOT want NHS is my father in law. He is 75 years of age. He has NEVER had a blood test. He has NEVER had a urinalysis. He has NEVER had a check of his prostrate. Our system and doctors would start these checks at 50 years of age for a baseline.
Again I am faced with approaching the INS thru the proper procedures and waiting for several months while they process an application to bring my father in law here, during which time he is subject to the lack of care of the NHS which may cause his health to deteriorate. There will be no one in the UK to look after him. To make sure he takes his meds and doesn’t take a turn until we can get thru all of the paper work and money required to get him back here to live with us. Some illegal’s have no qualms about not following the rules and moving to America, and abusing our health care system, however I have always made every effort as an American to do the right thing.
A National Heathcare system is in theory a morally good idea, however in any country that has them, the level of care provided suffers from the government and bureaucratic overload of paperwork, budgets and managers that take the focus away from the medical staff caring for the patients and result in more skilled doctors leaving due to lack of morale.
