Actually Indonesia, a country clawing its way out of third world status, is in the process of introducing universal health care, [1] so it's not only commonwealth countries. Hopefully, this 'socialised' system can be implemented in such a way as to flourish within the rapidly growing economy to come.
In the UK, after we've charged you nothing in the NHS, we'll give you the bus fare home.
Yes but try getting an appointment with a doctor in a reasonable time under NHS. It's been a while since I've left the UK but I remember getting appointments with a primary care physician using private insurance I would get one the next day, with NHS the next month.
It does seem to have got worse in the last few years - not that I go to a GP often (maybe once every 3 or 4 years) but I was used to getting an appointment within 1 or 2 days and the last time the only appointement was about a week away.
However, it is worth noting that recent published statistics (for 2011/2012) show that:
"85 per cent could see or speak to a doctor or nurse within two working days compared to 90 per cent in 2009/10."
Note that this is for NHS Scotland - there actually isn't a single NHS for the entire UK.
One of the problems with the NHS is that it seems to suffer from having regular waves of (probably very expensive) management re-organisation inflicted on it in efforts to make it "more efficient" - often with non-medical managers being incentivized on performance, so they end up gaming the metrics.
Still, I think the NHS and the concept of "free at the point of delivery" championed by Nye Bevan "In Place of Fear" are still fantastically important to society the UK - though nobody claims it is perfect. Clearly the absolute best level of individual care are to be found elsewhere (probably in the US). However, when I see quotes elsewhere in this thread such as:
"I broke my knee this spring but didn't go to a hospital on my families request because the last time I broke a bone I reset it myself and the hospital still charged $8k."
Those pretty much fill me with horror/fear that anyone has to put up with that - which is precisely the reason the NHS was created.
Although specialist visits are still lagging behind the US (23 weeks for knee replacements).
Yes, the non medical managers (i.e. those annoying MPH people who make drastic irrational changes to justify their positions), we have the same problem in Canada.
Yes but try getting an appointment with a doctor in a reasonable time under NHS.
You can usually get an appointment with your GP within days, sometimes the next day (depends on your local GP). In an emergency you can call them and get an appointment straight away. It's never been a problem when I needed to see a UK doctor.
The GP can decide with you if you need to see a specialist and refer you (the vast majority of people don't).
It takes me a month to get a physician appointment with private insurance in US (and you cannot go to the doctor
without first going to physician). I don't even bother anymore and just go directly to urgent care.
Part of the problem with US healthcare is not just that prices are insane, but that it does not provide an adequate service even given those prices. Again, a sign of a non-free market.
In the UK, after we've charged you nothing in the NHS, we'll give you the bus fare home.
1. http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/health-care/indonesi...