Here is a short video from the BBC which makes some comparisons between the British and US healthcare systems:
BBC NEWS | UK | US and UK health systems compared
It's quite strange to listen to some of the misguided notions about the "dire" conditions here.
I've lived in the UK all my adult life (I grew up in the USA). I can make an appointment to see my doctor for any reason, and not have to pay. I pay a small flat-rate prescription charge for any medications I may need (senior citizens and those on benefits get theirs free). I've been in the hospital with birth complications; my husband and I have been to A&E for various reasons. Never have there been any worries about insurance and payments to add to the stress.
It's true that some people take advantage of the system by seeing their doctors when they don't really need to, or they miss appointments. It's true that there can be waiting lists and sometimes people will pay privately to avoid them. Also, I consider my hospital experience for the birth of my daughter to have been mediocre. I was in a public ward with several other new mothers, all of whom had babies waking at all hours of the night; the floor was so filthy that my feet turned black; the heating was cranked up so high that I could not sleep; the food was so awful that many of us ordered take-away. I could have had much better in the USA if I'd had the insurance of my parents, who are upper middle class. But I'm thankful that this all came out of my taxes instead of me being saddled with thousands of pounds in bills to pay off at a time when I wasn't working.
What's more, the USA needs to look at ways of lowering the cost of healthcare, regardless of who provides it. The pharmaceutical lobby needs to be effectively dealt with as the prices of many of their drugs are highly inflated, and they will advertise new "me too" drugs at higher prices than older drugs whose patents have expired, without there being any evidence that the new drugs are actually better. They will also convince doctors to needlessly prescribe certain medications, such as statins for cholesterol or antidepressants for people going through a bad patch.
The other thing that needs to happen is that there needs to be a shift of emphasis to prevention, rather than masking symptoms when they occur. The average American's lifestyle is unhealthy in many respects and this leads to health care costs down the road. The UK isn't far behind in this regard, which is one reason why the cost of the NHS is rising too. (Another reason is the aging population.) Some ideas would be for the government to subsidise accessible exercise programs (some doctors can, I believe, prescribe going to a gym and get people a discounted membership for health reasons), and fruit and veg also need to be subsidised while junk food can be taxed to high heaven.
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