Many of my British friends always tell me how they love their NHS because it is free healthcare. They somehow think that what they have in the UK is far more superior than what I have here in the USA. They can be right if only I don't have health insurance in the USA. But they are dead wrong when I have health insurance in the USA.
Recently I had been suffering from Shingles. I'm not the average usual case because people my age don't usually get shingles. I'm still in the age group where I am still fighting with acne, but shingles? It started out with a migraine like headache, a tingling sensation on the side of the neck, a red rash on the eye lid. Then the headache became intense with intermittent ice-pick sharp pain, my left ear also got the same ice-pick pain deep inside, the side of my neck had a tight and stiff sensation yet it also had similar muscle pain like what I usually had during a flu fever. I didn't have a fever but I felt this very painful big lump on the back of my neck near my head. All these are on the left side of my head and neck only. I was told that Shingles usually showed symptoms on one side of the body.
Initially I ignored all these pain and skin rash on my eye lid because I thought I may have an allergic reaction to something I ate. But soon the rash on my eye became a clutter of pearl-like blisters. When I bumped into my doctor neighbor hauling my trash cans out, he looked at my eyelid and told me I had shingles and I must go seek medical help as soon as possible.
Freaking out, I walked in the Urgent Care Clinic at 6:30pm and I was checked-in smoothly and quickly. After my efficient and pleasant pre-screening with the nurses, a medical doctor came in to ask about my symptoms, then she looked at my blister on my eye lid, she checked my scalp, and she felt and checked the painful lump on my neck. She then dropped some special eye drop on my left eye and used a special equipment to examine my eye with flashes of bright light. She then confirmed my doctor neighbor's opinion that I indeed had shingles. She prescribed 10-days' worth of the anti-viral medicine called Valacyclovir, and she told me to follow-up with an opthamologist the next day. I spent approximately 25 minutes at the Urgent Care Clinic without an advanced appointment. I don't know how much faster my British friends in the UK can get the Shingles treatment at their beloved NHS, than what I got here in the US. But I'm happy with the speedy access that I have here in the USA.
Yes, my visit at the Urgent Care Clinic wasn't free, I paid $45 when I checked-in. But such was the cost of immediate access to a doctor, with health insurance. The prescription cost me another $14.58 at a pharmacy. My only complaint about the U.S. healthcare system is the separation of medicine dispatch from the doctors. If only the Urgent Care Clinic had a pharmacy department to dispatch the medicine, that would have saved me a trip to drive to a pharmacy. When I didn't feel well with that acute ice-pick pain on my head and ear, the last thing I wanted to do was to drive. Then after I arrived at the pharmacy, I had to stand in line to wait for the pharmacist to type a lot of stuff into her computer before she could give me the medicine. The typing was long and it felt forever to me when I was waiting at the window, impatiently while I felt like someone was viciously stabbing my head and ear with an ice pick. I was waiting in tears at the Pharmacy, not because I felt sad. It was because of the acute pain inside my head. It was the worst pain I had experienced in my entire life. It was tortuous. But there was a few minutes' pain-free break in between every ice-pick stab when I could breathe.
The next day, I was able to make an immediate appointment with my opthamologist, who squeezed me in based on the Urgent Care Doctor's assessment. How long do my British friends have to wait to see an opthamologist at the NHS? This time, my neighbor who is a retired doctor went with me. He drove me to my opthamologist, because I couldn't drive with my tortuous headache. No, Ibuprofen didn't help one bit even though I was taking the highest dose recommended by the doctor at the Urgent Care. I had already taken 3 doses of the antiviral medication when my opthamologist did another exam on my eye. He didn't see the shingles got into my eyes yet even though they were on my eye lid and eyebrow and was starting to show on my left forehead. He told me to continue taking my anti-viral medicine. But my concern was the tortuous nerve pain inside my head that made me want to die, literally. The opthamologist told me that the pain would reduce as the anti-viral medicine continued its work inside my body. It was then my doctor neighbor kindly suggested the prescription of prednisone. My opthamologist was not too willing though, thinking the anit-viral medication that I'm taking will eventually disarm the viruses and thus the pain caused by the viruses' attack on my nerve in my head. But after a friendly professional discussion between the opthamologist and my neighbor door on the pros and cons and the side effects on giving me the prednisone. My opthamologist wrote me the prescription. I didn't even know that it was and I never heard of prednizone before. But I took the highest doze allowed and it was a life saver! I thank god for having a neighbor who is a retired doctor. The doctor at Urgent Care and my opthamolostist wanted me to just wait it out and let the anti-viral medicine to work. But that acute pain deep inside my head was so horrible that, every time it stabbed like an ice pick, I felt my mind went blank and my heart smashed. Yes, that kind of severe pain actually hurt my heart too. The second the pain hit my head, I felt like I was going to drop to the floor. It was extremely painful. But prednizone took the pain away, how? I have no idea. I only know after I took the maximum allowable daily dose, I felt like I was healed from my painful Shingles, but of course I continued to take my anti-viral meds diligently. But can you imagine if I didn't have the prednizone? I was screaming in pain with tears while waiting for my prednizone at the pharmacy. How could I survive one more day of acute pain or possibly a few more days, a week? I was just lucky that my neighbor was a retired doctor and he with me at my doctor's office, and he was able to convince my opthamologist to give me the prednizone. How about the many who went to the doctors, relying on their professional judgement and just went home to wait out the acute pain? Prednizone isn't for everybody but in my case it really worked the wonder. And it only cost me $1.88. No, I hadn't suffered any side effect because I was on it for only a very short time.
So before praising the NHS in the UK, let's compare the access of care and the quality of care head to head when a person has actually fallen ill. At this point, I personally prefer the U.S. healthcare system to the UK's NHS, but if you ask me when I lose my health insurance and when I am too broke to have $45 and $14.58 to pay for the out-of-pocket expense that insurance doesn't pay, then yes, I will tell you I need the NHS, even if I may have to wait for a long time to see just a GP. (General Practitioner).
I don't think there is the "Perfect" free quality healthcare anywhere in this world. There is however the quality healthcare that works beautifully at the moment when you happen to have the money to afford it. In the USA, one must have a job that offers group health insurance coverage. Once you have that, healthcare is fantastic. But I bet this works in the same way even in the UK , because private insurance can get you quicker treatment at private hospitals and clinics. But of course for Americans who are younger than 65 and who absolutely can't get a job that offers health insurance, there is a need for the UK's NHS to be in place. But then isn't this what Medicaid in the USA is all about? Now, what's our problem with American healthcare again? I'm now getting confused.
If I have to choose one aspect of the U.S. healthcare system that I must dedicate my life to advocating, please let the doctor's office dispatch medicine!!!!! My visits at the pharmacy during this Shingles outbreak were the most tortuous experience I ever had, so far. It wasn't the pharmacy's fault, it was just I didn't have anybody to go wait in line for me to get the medication. I very much prefer to take my meds immediately at my doctors' visits, and not to driving in great pain to go elsewhere to get my meds! Just how much unnecessary pain I would have avoided if only I could take my meds at my doctors' visits!
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