Now, there Lasse_C, you have a major point.
My good lady has been a type 1 diabetic since her early teens. Without the NHS she would by now be dead. Private health insurances have two 'get out' clauses - the first is the 'Conditions not covered clause' and the second is the 'Existing conditions clause', fall foul of either of these and your insurance is as a valuable as a Politicians promise. Some even have a third nasty clause tucked into the tiny print - the 'Illness duration limit clause' but these limitations are the fault of the greedy Insurance companies, not the private health care providers, who (at least in the UK) tend to be equipped with state of the art systems, staffed with experts and well managed.
By contrast, the NHS is simply a governmentally authorised means of providing profit for 'big Pharma'. Although the NHS will always see you, no matter what your condition nor how long you have had it, don't expect to be cured and if you are a realist, you should even consider the very real risk of being exposed to life threatening diseases and incompetence. While the private health care providers deal with volume by being efficient, the NHS deals with it by utilising the 'Queue Here' system.
Something wrong? Phone the local GP surgery and make an appointment - you can have one today with the doctor who has been nearly struck off twice, or a half decent doctor in two weeks, or a doctor you respect in four weeks. Make the appointment and see the GP - get referred to the hospital to see a consultant. A month later an appointment arrives for an initial consultation in two months time. Go to the hospital and register on time and get sent to the path lab - queue in the path lab for 40 minutes, take the results back to your clinic reception - get sent to X-ray - queue in X-ray for 35 minutes and eventually take your films back to reception - get sent to MAU for assessment, queue for 30 minutes, chase staff in case they have forgotten you, wait another 30 minutes, fill in a questionnaire and take it back to the clinic where you then wait for your turn to see the consultant. Three trips to the loo later (what do they put in that coffee?) and the place is starting to look a little empty - got to be your turn soon - then up trundles the cleaning lady - "Hello dearie, have they forgotten you? They all went home an hour ago". She then goes on to tell you her life story, oblivious to the shock on your face and your need for yet another pee. As she chatters, she sprays polish and lovingly rubs one little spot - sprays and rubs, sprays and rubs - always the same spot, while amazingly never going near that nasty stain that looks like blood - or worse? Where is her supervisor to check that she is working and not gassing, to check that she has cleaned the whole surface and not just that one spot to a gloss that would blind you should the sun ever glint off it. Of course, there is only one supervisor to 500 staff spread over ten hospitals - all she ever has time for is to ensure that the right number of people turned up for work so that the cleaning agency can bill for their time, what they do when they get to work is up to the hospital (hospital staff don't know this of course) - she just tells them to keep cleaning, look busy and don't get in anybodies way - after all, her bonus is determined by how many staff she provides, not by how well they clean, and if they cleaned too well, the hospital would not need so many and her bonus would suffer.
I once saw a bed bay in a ward stripped, cleaned and remade by two nurses in six minutes (that was several years ago before the hospitals could not afford to provide sanitiser for the clean downs). Recently I saw a whole Intensive Care bed bay stripped, cleaned (ceilings, walls, equipment, tubes, cables, pipes, bed, railings, floor) and reassembled in 18 minutes by two nurses - the senior ICU ward nurse and an ICU nurse. I actually saw them doing it several times - it was efficient and impressive - some parts of the NHS are really good - most is poor verging on lethal.
Yes, with the NHS, no matter what ails you, they will see and 'treat' you, but that 'treatment' might not be in your best interests. As I said, my better half has type 1 diabetes, and as here carer, I was given instructions on what food she should have - the dietitians advice for the main meal was 'half the plate should be slow release carbohydrate' which I duly provided, and her weight began to increase as all the other diabetics at the clinic did. Her feet started to loose feeling and she developed a 'Charcot foot' - the first stage to amputation. That was several years ago when I started to question the NHS advice we were being given. Turns out, carbohydrate (slow release or otherwise) is the worst thing a diabetic can eat - yes they need some, but basically as little as possible - they also need masses of vitamin C to mop up free radicals and limit nerve and kidney damage. The standard advice from the NHS was wrong and was hastening her death - it is not the NHS, it is the NSS - the National Sickness Service, and just like the cleaning service, they only get to keep their jobs by keeping you sick.
My good lady is now using less insulin, is off blood pressure and statin medication and her heart, kidneys, eyes and neuropathy are all improving. Thanks for the advice NHS, but No Thanks - we will take the insulin, but you can keep the rest. Yes, we need the NHS for the insulin, because insurance companies are allowed to pick and choose what they will cover and what they wont, but the rest of the NSS is there to self perpetuate itself and its customer base, and we their 'customers' have absolutely no say in how they operate.
Is it possible to have a system that does not suffer from these extremes? Yes, I believe it is.
I was once employed by a large organisation who provided health insurance for all its employees (after all, we made the profit for the corporation, so it paid them to keep us in work). The corporation had the buying power to negotiate a competitive insurance rate and it also had the clout to insist that all its employees were insured, no matter what the condition, existing or otherwise. When I left the organisation I had a shock - the insurance cost shot up and the coverage shrank badly. The lesson is that it is possible to have a good private system, but only when the means exist to keep the greed and power of the insurance companies within check - that is a challenge that will not be answered in a hurry and will never be answered by politicians...
Derek
