Yes. It is. It's only bad in the land of Republicans, who are being paid large amounts of money by large medical insurance companies to continue to lie to you.
Okay, #1 I'm not in the USA and don't have a stake in defending their system. So whatever political position you're projecting onto me, quit it. My comment was meant in commiseration with people having trouble with the system, not to prove a point.
#2, what I'm going by is what Walkie has told me about how bad things are, she's been in the thick of dealing with them for years now.
I have brief experience with them myself from working in the UK for six months. Months-long delays seem to be the norm, similar to Canada or possibly worse. But you can't argue with the cost. Also when I did get in to see a GP, they just looked up my symptoms in a big book of diagnoses to figure out what medications to prescribe. A trained chimp could have done that, or I could have done it myself with Dr. Google, if I had the authority to prescribe myself stuff.
Gotta back Pyraxis up here. Not in in the mood to go into the issues that I
and my family have had with the NHS over a period of years and years and years. Besides, I thought everybody knew that the NHS is very much struggling to cope by now? Heck, even Tory politicians know that.
Besides which, the NHS is
not free. It's paid for by our National Insurance contibutions and taxes, isn't it? It's pretty damned scandalous, IMO, that so many people, who are paying already for their "free NHS treartment" under our tax system, have to take out private medical insurance on top of that, to be sure of getting necessary treatment (that does not include me, mind, because I can't afford medical; insurance, and have too many pre-existing conditions anyway to, qualify for any kind of useful cover . What's more, my generation were brought up to think of people who buy private medical treatment as selfish "queue jumpers" . So, probably most of missed that boat, on principle)
I'm glad that
somebody had a good experience of the NHS, but please don't project that onto everybody else. Other people
do have very good reasons for complaining. And to dismiss their experience amnd POV just because you're comparatively lucky is...well... smug and offensive, seems to me.
I've often been told by American's that their system actually works
better than ours does, in many ways, e3ven for the poor. Yep, I was surptised, and more than a little sceptical about that. But it seems to be down to charities stepping in to fill the void in State care. Here, we don't have those charities. We still expect the State to provide, even when it doesn't. I dunno. But I've heard this said rather too many times, by too many intelligent people to lightly dismiss it