NHS fares best on free access to healthcare

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edgray

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The Guardian said:
Britain is the only country in the industrialised world where wealth does not determine access to healthcare, study finds

The NHS is the only health system in the industrialised world where wealth does not determine access to care – providing the most widely accessible treatments at low cost among rich nations, a key study has found.

The survey, by US health thinktank the Commonwealth Fund, showed that while one-third of American adults "went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick, or failed to fill prescriptions because of costs", this figure was only 6% in the UK and 5% in Holland.

In all countries except Britain, wealth largely determined access to health, with patients with incomes below the national average more likely to report trouble with medical bills and problems with getting care because of cost.

The survey, of 19,700 patients in 11 nations, found "substantial differences" among countries on access to care when sick, access after hours, and waiting times for specialised care.

About 70% of British patients reported same- or next-day access to doctors when sick, less than the 93% of Swiss adults reporting rapid access. In contrast, however, only 57% of adults in Sweden and the US, and less than half in Canada and Norway, were seen this quickly.

The NHS was also extremely cost-effective, with spending on health per person almost the lowest in the survey. A person in the UK paid $1,500 less than a person in Switzerland, $600 less than a German and less than half the $7,538 paid by every American for healthcare.

Only New Zealand, where one in seven people said they skipped hospital visits because of cost, spent less per capita than the NHS.

The report was particularly damning about the healthcare system in the US, where it found patients "are far more likely than those in 10 other industrialised nations to go without healthcare because of costs, have trouble paying medical bills, encounter high medical bills even when insured".
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I wonder if the Tories will keep the standard going?
 
It would be some form of mathematical equation I imagine that takes into account the average amount of tax a person pays in their life, and the average cost they receive in healthcare.
 
What else could it be? I've never paid anything to the NHS out of pocket, and I'm more than 25% through my average life span. So if it was out of pocket I would have already paid the NHS $1000+ according to this study.

I'm not proclaiming the study to be accurate, never the less.
 
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