Money-sucking US healthcare system bleeds its people dry

disadvantage to living in America, it is the state of their healthcare system.

So it is with abject fear that I watch from afar the events unfolding in the UK that are placing the National Health Service under threat.

Saturday will see hundreds of thousands of people march on London in protest over what is shaping up to be the biggest crisis in NHS history.

There are reports of ambulances queuing for hours to hand over seriously ill patients, the ill and injured being left in corridors waiting for beds, operations postponed, and mental health patients taken hundreds of miles to find a bed.

If action is not taken soon, the only option left open for British healthcare is the adoption of the money-sucking American system that bleeds its people dry.

Trying to explain the NHS to our Stateside cousins is for many, too difficult to comprehend.

The thought that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, is a concept they fail to understand.

In reality, if someone has unlimited funds, then the US system is probably more likely to keep you alive than the NHS.

But we’re talking the money of millionaires.

Here, even if you have health insurance through your employer, medical bills mount up.

There’s the cost of health insurance premiums with companies increasingly shifting healthcare costs to their employees.

Then there are all the deductibles and excesses you have to shell out for when you visit a doctor or get a prescription that can range from a few bucks to thousands of dollars depending on your plan.

Medical debt has long been the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US, even adding to the suicide rate.

It is easy to understand how we only really appreciate how incredible our NHS is when we, or someone close to us, is treated on it.

Not only does it take care of us medically, but the NHS also acts as a safety net that has an impact on areas of our lives, other than our health.

Plenty of Americans can’t even consider leaving jobs they hate because they need the health insurance.

Meanwhile, anyone hoping to set up their own business or take a sabbatical from work has to factor in the cost of insurance or run the risk of going bankrupt because of sudden emergencies.

It is frightening then that the NHS is being made to deliberately fail so private entities can be put in place.

For five years since living in the States, I have continued to pay my national insurance, proud of what it helps to provide.

I’d happily give more, as I think many would if it secured the future of the NHS and ensured that everyone can get treatment for free.

Because on top of the care it provides, the health service importantly affords us all freedom from fear.

Here in America, if you don’t have insurance, that is the fear you live with every single day for your life, your family’s life, and that’s a situation we never want to get into.

So march on London this Saturday. Let your voices be heard. Because when it comes to Britain the crown jewels don’t sit in the Tower of London, they appear in every town and city run by dedicated doctors and nurses.

They are the people who, unlike American business, put compassion before cash and patients before profit.

The thought that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, is a concept they fail to understand