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Comment by kar1181 | Hacker News Reader

When we lived in the US my daughter tripped and opened up her chin on the kerb. My wife having no idea what to do (go to Urgent care) went to the ER...

She had 5 stitches and was in and out in about 90 minutes. A plastic surgeon did the stitches and at one point there were 8 folks in the room.

She has no scar and the experience was very good.

We had full insurance, and when the bill came, it was ~$4500 of which we had to pay roughly $990 ourselves.

Still not sure how to feel about it - that's a high price for a few stitches, but if I had a choice of going to a UK hospital for free, or paying a grand to know my daughter will be perfectly cared for, assuming I had that grand, I'd rather pay.

Not everyone has that option though and that's the problem.

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> but if I had a choice of going to a UK hospital for free, or paying a grand to know my daughter will be perfectly cared for, assuming I had that grand, I'd rather pay.

Lol. It’s not like the doctors are dumber or do poorer quality work when it’s socialized. I doubt having $1k skimmed by some middleman got you better care than we’d get in Canada.

The kicker is that not everyone can pay the grand and since you have 8 people in the ER making 5 stitches, there no one left to help anyone else.

So, it works for some people, but overall it’s a pretty shitty system.

>>but if I had a choice of going to a UK hospital for free, or paying a grand to know my daughter will be perfectly cared for

I just don't understand why it's a binary choice, either free care of good care. My own experience with the NHS has been stellar, the standard of care I have received(and still receive) is incredible. Everyone is very friendly and I get all my meds and treatment for free. My father has fought cancer for 9 years, during that time he had multiple operations and years of Glivec supplied to him free of charge, the only complaint he's ever had was that they would only reimburse him for 2nd class train ticket when going to the hospital for an operation, even though driving was more expensive.

But the thing is - if I or him ever wanted to(for some reason) to go private, that's still an option. Private insurance with private doctors and hospitals is also available. In US you don't really have any option other than going private.

In my time in the UK I never had any contact with the NHS - how do you imagine her experience in a British hospital?

Coming from Germany and now living in Denmark, I have full confidence in the systems here to handle it equally well (maybe with less than 8 people in a room though).

maybe with less than 8 people in a room though

And that is one of the many reasons why US healthcare is so expensive. I live in Sweden now, and many of the 'minor' things a doctor would handle in US is handled by nurses here. Personally I've never felt this to be a problem at all, but I know many people in the US feel very uncomfortable about that idea.

My only personal experience in a British hospital was fine. They saw me promptly, the treatment was fine, the free meal was typically British.

I've been twice to Danish hospitals, and I think the experience is very comparable. The staff in Copenhagen seemed kinder (a bit more time to reassure the patient etc) but otherwise there wasn't much difference.

I trust both countries in 2015, and Denmark in 2020. I don't know what's happened in Britain since 2015. My family aren't complaining (at least, no more than the usual British amount), but the British people keep voting against their interests.

It would have been fine in the UK, the difference would have been waiting time (we'd definitely not be in and out in 90 minutes here). Also we'd have had a junior doctor or nurse do the stitches.

End result would be roughly the same.

In some parts of the country it may be a longer wait than others. The NHS generally though are very good when you visit with very young children.

> if I had a choice of going to a UK hospital for free, or paying a grand to know my daughter will be perfectly cared for, assuming I had that grand, I'd rather pay.

Is the implication that UK hospitals provide lesser care than their (costly) american counterparts?

I would assume that while a broken chin would get reasonably fixed in UK, it would not involve "at one point there were 8 folks in the room.". I'm not a doctor so I can't be certain, but it seems plausible that in UK they would get adequate care but in USA they would eagerly "overprovide" services that are nice but carry a hefty extra cost.

In the UK you would never have a top surgon and 8 doctors and nurses dropping by to makes sure everything was OK for something as trivial as stitches. You'd have one person who would get you in and out as quickly and efficiently as they could. Whether that qualifies as 'lesser' is up for debate.

No - the only implication is that the UK wouldn't use so many (costly) resources for something as minor as a few stitches on a 3 year old.

But as a parent, it is YOUR 3 year old so you want the absolute best for them. The end result, I believe, would have been exactly the same had it happened here or in the US. Just I had a lot more confidence (at the time) seeing just how much was being done to ensure there was no scarring.

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