Me V Socialized Medicine

About two weeks ago, I was washing up in the shower and noticed a lump in my armpit.  I've gotten pimples in more unusual places, so I didn't think much of it, and went about my life.  A week ago, though, I started getting pressure pains in the same area.  I did what no one should ever do when nervous about something weird on the body: I went to WebMD.

The initial prognosis was not good: cancer.  Some kind of cancer, be it one of the lymphomas or a rare case of breast cancer that can sometimes occur in men.  Or possibly some other sort of awful infection of the lymph system which can cause all sorts of undue health issues down the road.  Or just an infected hair follicle (I'll say you the worry and let you know that it is most likely an abscess caused by a clogged sweat glad, and not some incurable rapidly spreading form of cancer).

Luckily for me, though, I was in the UK and could go to the doctor for free (as all students in the UK can do when studying for more than six months).  There are heart-related health issues that run in my family, and while it is likely that my Dad's ALS was triggered by a drug interaction, I still find myself a little antsy when my arms hurt (which is where his ALS started).  So, figuring I was dying of cancer, had clotted arteries, or blood pressure shooting through the roof, I decided to make an appointment to see a doctor.  This is the second time, see more below, and I want to dispel some rumors about socialized medicine here.

See: when I was in America I was one of the millions of Americans that did not make enough money to afford health insurance.  When I was at Carbondale, I could benefit by going to the Student Health Services for $6 for most things.  When I left Carbondale, I was left to my own devices, and like so many others, I decided to pay for things like phone service and gas money than I did for insurance with an insanely high deductible and minimal coverage.  Luckily, I am don't often get sick (though, having said that, I will likely be stricken with something here soon), so it wasn't too much of a problem, but there were a few scares where splitting headaches wouldn't go away for days or a weird pain would shoot down my left arm.  I was then left to decide if what I felt was bad enough to see a very expensive doctor, or if I should see if I got better on my own.  I'm still alive today, so again: Keegan = lucky so far.

Here, though, I can see a doctor for free.  When I got to the UK, I had no idea how to sign up for an NHS card, so I let an entire year and a half go by before I decided it was worth looking into.  Then, right after I got back here for this school year, I got really sick and worried about what I would do if I needed hospitalization.  So I asked my friends here, and they told me to register with a local doctor.  I went to the one my friend Rachel suggest (Church Surgery), and just asked at the desk.  A few forms later, and I was in the system.  A week later, and a card came for me.  Just like that, I was insured.

Ironically, I ended up losing hearing in my left ear due to an infection that caused a massive waxy buildup shortly after I registered.  Terrified that I had gone deaf (I don't often freak out about medical things, despite what this blog suggests), I went back to the doctor, but my registration with the NHS hadn't gone through.  This is was one concern I had: large government run things can sometimes be really inefficient, and thus I could be denied care.  I've been to the DMV; I knew what to expect.  Without any hesitation, though, I was given an appointment and told that they would sort it out later.  Technically, I was uninsured, but with faith in the system, I was assumed covered.

Thus arose my second concern: that I would have to wait months for my appointment.  There are horror stories passed around about how people need to wait months for critical surgeries, or how people critically wounded spent days in the emergency room.  You'll wait forever to get an appointment, people would say.  And by that point, you'll have died.  So, when the lady asked me if I had that afternoon free, I was most surprised.  I literally waited four hours for my appointment, but it was a four hour wait I knew was coming.  So I went home.  I think I did laundry.  Quietly, because I had lost my hearing in one ear.  That afternoon, the doctor looked in, saw the buildup, and suggested some drops.  That night I could hear better than I had for months previous (the problem with slow buildups is that one does not recognize subtle changes).

When I found the lump in my armpit, I went over to make an appointment and found that I would not be that lucky.  I was asked if my issue was an emergency.  Wanting it not to be, I said no, hoping I could will it with my blase attitude into being just an abscess.  The nurse turned around and flipped through her appointment book, "Let's see here, when can we fit you in..."  She flipped through pages - what seemed like months.  "How is next Monday?" she asked.

So, one time, I waited four hours.  The next time I waited a week.  I know stats people will lose their mind over this, but on average, I wait 3.58 days for an appointment.  Which, if I remember right, is about what I would wait for an appointment in the States, fully insured (and so long as I didn't have an HMO, because then the waits can be quite a bit longer...).

I realize that there are caveats to this story:
1) I live in a small town that has surgery hours set aside for students.
2) None of my concerns have been life threatening or chronic.
3) Nothing has needed immediate or complicated treatment.
4) Wales in not London, or Birmingham, or Manchester, or even Shrewsberry for that matter.  Small places always = shorter wait times.
That said, I have had no complaints about the medical coverage over here.  The doctor's office was clean and professional.  The Death Panel cleared me with little argument (THERE ARE NO DEATH PANELS, YOU IDIOTS!  Never, anywhere, could a civilized country get away with killing off old people; the UN would have a fit and Florida would go bankrupt).  All in all, I have been extremely satisfied with my experience.

Today, when I got home for the doctor, I scrolled through Facebook, and my friend Sara recommended Fahreed Zakaria's new article on Swiss and Taiwanese health care (and, really, the rest of the world), and how it compares to the US.  Interestingly, it didn't look at how socialized medicine is a better way forward ethically, nor did it look to debunk the myths about death panels or wait times.  Instead, Zakaria approached it financially.  Financially speaking, Americans, American employers, and the American government pay more (more than 22 other financially similar countries) for less care (and, as Zakaria notes, less satisfying care).  We die younger and our babies have less a chance for survival.  In short, a country that prides itself on having the best of everything provides the worst health care in the industrialized world (more than Argentina or India, which are not known to be countries rolling in splendor).

In the end, universal health care just makes the most sense.  The US spends more money on health care, as individuals, as an employer and as a nation, than anyone else, so financially, the health care needs to be reformed.  Those that complain the government is too involved can rest assured that less tax dollars will go towards a universal system than do the one currently operating (see the above link, slide 26 for evidence to that end), and a system like Switzerland would allow for a more free-market solution that would remove a lot of government involvement.  Economically, healthier people = healthy workers; I'm not economist, but I think a strong, longer living work force would be beneficial to the economy.  No matter how you look at it, there needs to be a change, and any step away from some sort of Universal Care is an unhealthy step.

See what I did there...