The waits for surgery depend on the urgency of the condition. If you have bowel cancer you'll be on the next surgical list, if you want your varicose veins done, you'll be waiting 18 months. This is a worst case scenario and then of course you are entitled to get private care and referral to a private surgeon if you don't want to wait.

Emergency departments are run on triage like anywhere else 1-5

1. Must be seen immediately, person is dead or dying now. e.g. serious head injury from a car accident.

2. Must be seen in less than 10 minutes, stuff like heart attacks.

3. Less than 30 minutes. Potentially life threatening condition but person is not currently in danger. e.g. non severe abdominal pain

4. Less than an hour: colds, soft tissue injuries etc

5. Less than two hours: person shouldn't really be at the hospital.

Flu wouldn't probably get you a 3 or 4, perhaps a 1 or 2 at the moment.

I'm Australian.

I suffered an injury last year that needed surgery. Got it the next day.
The standard of care was very high.

I've also been treated in a private hospital and again the standard of care was great.

No system is perfect obviously, but I've never had any issues.

you already spend 440 billion for medicare (2007 budget) and 208 billion for medicaid (2008 budget.... Federal contribution only). If you got your health care costs per person treated more in line with Canada/UK/etc you would already be set.

For 2008 year WHO Statistics

Canada spends 17.5% of total government expenditure

UK spends 16.2% of total government expenditure

US spends 21.8% of total government expenditure

I'm from Britain. Government funded healthcare is expensive, but a price worth paying. It does result in high taxes, which is fair, but it benefits millions of people like me.

Also, the quality is actually very high too, I think it's a common misconception that in Britain you have to wait weeks to see a doctor that works 50 miles away about a flu, by which time it's gone. I've never had to do anything like that. I live less than 5 miles from about 4 hospitals and I live near dozens of clinics, and i have never had to wait more than an hour to see a doctor. In an emergency it's always been instant too.

My parents are both on private healthcare, as with a lot of British people and their experience doesn't seem to be any better than mine, just that they have to go to a hospital 6 or 7 miles away.

 To reduce land mass and increase efficiency, couldn't you do it state by state?

The US pays more moeny per person in the country for health services and there are still people dying from lack of insurance.

I'd rather have the high taxes and health cover that will treat me no matter what rather than paying the same amount of money to an insurance company that will turn me away from treatment and let me die becasue I didn't disclose a cigarette i smoked 10 years ago.

It's common sense really, do you want to pay for govenment inefficiencies but better care or for insurance company and hospital profits but be refused cover as a result...

i'd take the European way any day.

I think it's the density of the states that is the issue. In some densely populated states like New Jersey it would be easy because you can build hospitals in centers of high density easily, the same way you would in england. Where as in places like Alaska where the population is sparse a nationalised healthcare system, or any system for that, would be quite unaffective.

it would be cool if there was some kind of "opt out" system whereby if you didn't live close enough to receive the benefits, of if you're like Mafoo and hate anything public, you can instead opt out of the system and go with whatever you'd like.


Another thought of a NHS is that it also sort of takes the load off of employers to pay for their employee's health insurance, doesn't it?

It certainly makes things much harder but Australia faces this same problem.  90% of the population is in urban areas, but that still leaves the remaining 2 million people dispersed across the other 6+million square km.  We have the Royal Flying Doctor service, which has 56 planes that cover the remoter regions of Australia.  They provide first aid and evacuation for people requiring more intensive medical care.

Of course it works, it is a pillar of our modern society.

My son was born last year and I almost payed nothing for it (great and famous clinic in Brussels). I pay something like 150 Euros a year for a private complementary insurrance for my whole family... the rest is free and most of the cure are refunded at 75 %.

I haven't compared a lot but my UK collegues who now work and live in BE are crazy about it (one got a premature baby and was under a lot of stress... but not financialy).