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I'll start by say... 'Not this sh#t again'....
There have been numerous threads on this before...so at the risk of repeating myself... the real difference lies not in the quality of the medical treatments but in the access to that treatment.
The US is the world leader in that regard, access to health care is far easier and for that priviledge you pay handsomely for it..so is it a surprise? In parallel to that the actual 'hotery' services whilst in 'in patient' care is of a higher standard and offers a greater scope of benefits. Again the cost associated with it via the private health insurance premiums is a direct cuase of this higher standard.
Once you get beyond that the quality of the medical staff and the treatment they provide is broadly similar.. Snow, sorry to disappoint you but that comes from a few decades of dealing with UK, European and US trained and qualitied medical staff. Yes there are areas where treatemtns for specific ailments are far more avalaible/ succesful in the US as approaches and FDA approvals permit different drugs to be used at different times. Similarly there are proceedures in Europe where the skills are higher, by virtue of greater use than in the US.
No overall there is no doubt that for the 'median' person the total healthcare package in the US offers advantages, but factor in the cost and it becomes a different view. On a personal level I have found that friends of mine, same backgronud, colelge etc, similar family situations and careers are actually paying something like twice the healthcare costs per year person than I do here for the entire family (that's including a private healthcare package offered by my company)....
Is the service they reveive twice as good? Based on personal experience it would be hard pressed to imagine in which areas the healthcare we have recieved in the past decade could have been bettered by a factor of two... need to see a doctor, next day walk in clinic will do nicely...need a major operation... when do you want it, in three months on the NHS or three months privately..becasue that is when you will be medically ready for it..... pre and post natal intensive care.. right there, parents room as part of the unit, check....
The area where vast improvements were possible were in terms of the food offer... the quality of teh rooms for parents (Victorian standards were somewhat different to ours.. but the sheets were clean, the room cleaned every day..sure it was a lino floor not carpet and teh curtains were thin an let too much light in and htere was no a/c. To have all of these would have been nice but would have not improved the quality of the medical care.
From having lived in the Us for quite a few years I think that medically there is little difference.. but that in terms of access and 'hotel' services the US ofers far more.. however the cost associated with it must never be ignored...
You pays ya money, you takes you pick..
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