I’m from the US so am very familiar with insurance. We have genuine problems here, too, though and I think many of us, regardless of where we are struggle with the grass is greener on the other side. But I want to mention the main problem here and that is expense and headache. We are full of citizens who have had standard treatment for diseases denied due to the expense. After all, insurance companies like most every other large company here is run by shareholders and profits matter the most. So what kind of healthcare you get and the ease that you get it is very much dependent on what kind of insurance your company has bought into. Plus we have co-pays and at the very best you pay thousands of dollars a year with a serious illness. At the very worst, you go bankrupt. That sucks. However, the media does like to portray that everyone in the US has these kind of problems and that’s not accurate. My healthcare was fantastic and my insurance covered what they needed to without co-pays killing us as a family. The vast majority of people are like me. So there is that. We also have fantastic treatment that is patient centered if you can get to a NCI center. We are told what the doctor’s recommend as far as surgery but the ultimate decision is our’s. So if they want to do a lumpectomy and we want a double mastectomy we get that double mastectomy. It’s why our mastectomy rates are so much higher than your’s but I wouldn’t change that personally. Our culture as far as general healthcare goes is to value bodily autonomy (except for abortion but don’t get me started on that). And our time frame for treatment is generally excellent and our waiting times for biopsy or scan results is in days instead of weeks. All that does bode better for mental health. But when there are problems, they’re big ones. So anyway there’s some differences.
Thank you for making all that clearer @Kay0987 . I don’t like it when people from overseas criticize the NHS so to be fair to make a bald statement like I did about healthcare in the US I did expect some come back. I know your post was not directed to me but thank you for your gracious and balanced reply. X
Sure! It’s good for all of us to know about the pros and cons in each healthcare system. The “be careful what you wish for” advice is apt.
What an interesting post. I have several good friends in the USA and they all report excellent health care. Trouble is, over here it is used as the bogeyman by those who have a vested interest in keeping the NHS as it is. The public are told that scrapping our dinosaur would result in people being denied health care. Worse, the automatic assumption is if we were to change to an insurance-based system, as are common throughout the world, we would automatically chose the American one with all its iniquities.
I am sure you would agree that there are huge problems in your country whereby people without means are denied treatment. Perhaps it is the price you pay for having the most advanced health systems in the world but, either way, to those of us brought up on a ‘free at the point of need’ ethic, it seems like the way of Satan.
If only the British people would stop assuming that the UK would go down this route and join their voices in campaigning for a European-style insurance system, then the sooner we might finally get a government with the guts to admit that the 1950’s model NHS is broken and not sustainable. We cannot simply go on pouring gold down its throat as it produces worse and worse outcomes. Change will come, it is just a question of how long we must wait. In the meantime, I remain baffled. People in the UK travel widely and must surely of seen how imminently superior health care is all over Europe.
Hi Joanne, A little bit of an update.
Let me say straight out that I can’t think of anybody who doesn’t acknowledge that very many NHS staff worked incredibly hard and made tremendous sacrifices for the sake of the public during Covid. I am equally glad, however, that you were not keen on the medals. I am something of a historian and the last corporate George Cross was given to Malta in WW2. That island withstood being bombed virtually to smithereens, they were within 36 hrs of having no food at all, having existed on starvation rations for nearly two years, and their suffering was immense. I thought awarding such a coveted Medal to a service that was, in effect, doing its job, demeaning of both the medal and the NHS. But it was a typical bit of Boris theatre - when in doubt, visit Ukraine!
It was interesting to hear your perspective of hospitals during Covid with which I cannot argue. Equally, I cannot deny what I saw, which was empty wards, many nurses with little to do and specialists like cardiologists who told me they hadn’t worked for four months. I am talking here of three major NHS hospitals in the South West. Having later transferred to the private sector because I was told a much-needed mastectomy would be five months away, what I saw there was even more upsetting. I was actually the only patient on my ward because the NHS had commandeered it a week earlier and then left it empty. And yes, I understand that you can have all the hospitals in the world but if you haven’t got the staff to man them its pointless, but this hadn’t happened. My view was that the NHS saw this as a wonderful opportunity to get everything under its control, even if it resulted in patients being denied care.
Of course it was the great and the good making these decisions and not the medics but I only once heard a consultant tell me he thought the exclusion of non-Covid patients was the worse thing he had seen in twenty-four years. Why weren’t the doctors campaigning on our behalf - if the medics don’t speak up for the sick, then who will?
If dedicated professionals like yourself would join your voices to those of us clamouring for change to an insurance-style system, then those changes would come more quickly. Make no mistake, they will come because the existing system is utterly unsustainable, we have just lacked a government with the cojones to tell the public the truth. And then to do battle with the doctors who are perfectly happy with how things are and will make the miners strike look like a teddy bears picnic when they are presented with change. I always remember what Bevan said when he finally got the doctors to agree to the formation of the NHS. When asked how he achieved it he said ‘I stuffed their faces with gold.’ I am afraid the same thing holds true today.
Hi Katkin1
I’m so sorry you had to go through this at a time when all you asked for was support.
I would echo your call to challenge if you don’t agree or don’t have faith in what you are being advised to do. My breast cancer treatment was different but I challenged the need for full on chemotherapy and bisphosphonate treatment. I had a rare subtype of Triple Negative Breast Cancer (Apocrine) that only 1-4% of people present with at diagnosis. I did my own research online with the few reported research projects worldwide and it gave at best a 50/50 benefit in outcome from chemo treatment.
Apocrine TNBC is much less aggressive than its big sister TNBC but as the oncology consultant and her team had never encountered it, deemed it necessary to treat it the same. I asked if there were more tests to check if chemo would do more good than harm and it’s necessity. Under pressure, they offered to do Ki67 and androgen tests on this very small tumour removed (7mm + 17mm precancerous cells). Both results were favourable but there was still a suggestion I should have chemo etc - at which point I then decided to get a private second opinion from The Royal Marsden. This advice was unequivocal - no chemo or bisphosphonate as the tumour was small, apocrine, and hadn’t spread - just radiotherapy.
So, my advice to everyone who has joined this unfortunate BC club, is to ask loads of questions that you get prepared before you meet with medics. Also do your own research and reference this in your discussions. Finally, whatever you decide to do is your choice - it is your body. It is ok to challenge and question when it is your body. Fortunately, I had my one year scan in November and all was clear - apart from some residual iron filings in the breast tissue from the MagTrace used in Surgery!!
The very best of luck to you. Be strong. Xx
“I am sure you would agree that there are huge problems in your country whereby people without means are denied treatment.”
Depends. People without means can be denied preventative health care. But once diagnosed they almost always can get treatment due to either medicaid or medicare. At least right now. We’ll see if our president guts those at some point.
Thats great to hear. As with most things, we are only ever told the nasty stuff, usually in an attempt to prop up our hopeless NHS.
Well done for making the complaint. Ive always said I would put a complaint in but as im still going through treatment and will be under their care, I feel I can’t. I once moaned to the oncologist that they just kept throwing things on me. I was told a rough plan when first diagnosed but then things seemed to change or there were more things to be done. They never once sat me down and talked me through everything, things would just be mentioned as they were due to be started. I got quite upset saying, I felt they weren’t telling me the full story. I got offered counselling but all I wanted was for them to tell me the truth.
I am still undergoing treatment, on three weekly herceptin still and zoledronic acid for three years. So the unit will see my smiling face for a while yet 
I too wasn’t really given a plan and communication was poor to say the least - that was really the substance of my moaning - the medical treatment received was ok - the people all lovely (well most) but the communication and talking to me was just dreadful.
If I asked something I was generally told “we’ll have a leaflet about that” Actually I don’t want another !8&!@?"*! leaflet I want somebody to talk to me and explain with real words.
The breast care team promised me the world when I was first diagnosed then basically buggered off and left me for three weeks until I chased it up. At this point I’m thinking “Am I going to die?” and no date for surgery - no plan, nothing.
So I thought it simply isn’t good enough. So one of the outcomes is to offer a phone call within three days of diagnosis to see how the person is. To offer a chance to talk to senior management rather than offer to make a complaint with all that involves. There were others and I got 22 “we are really sorry this happened to you” in my letter.
So was it worth it? Yes it was, if it helps others after me. I don’t think my treatment - either medically or on a personal level has been affected - and if it was I think they know I would say 
So perhaps it might be worth you asking to talk to the matron first. I wrote everything down in a linear fashion in different colours. So black for dates and episode, blue for how I felt and green for the impact on my mental health. (Steered clear of red - too confrontational!)
Bullet pointed the specifics, then bullet pointed impacts and bullet pointed outcomes I required. Photocopied letters (that had mistakes in , in my case)
It helped me mentally to write it down anyway, and once I’d finished it made me sure I had a case rather than a moan.
It’s ended ok - I have offered to be part of a focus group in the future and also to talk to the team in one of their training sessions if they would like to hear a real life experience.