I came across this researching finding an English speaking doctor in Spain.

Safety of the NHS´- WHAT SAFETY???? I am a retired intensive care nurse. We moved to Spain after my husband suffered very badly at the hands of the health service in Worthing and after I witnessed the most diabolical standards of nursing care at Worthing hospital. Since moving here seven years ago, we have had to call on the Spanish health service a number of times, including eye surgery for my husband in Rosell hospital in Cartagena, Murcia and we have nothing but praise for the standards of care here.

True, it is necessary for relatives/friends to provide for the basic needs of the patient, washing, toiletting etc. but as far as the doctors and nurses are concerned their care is far, far in advance of the NHS and the hospitals are definitely a great deal cleaner.

Equally so, the speed with which you can get to see a consultant is far better than the UK, I personally got to see a consultant recently within two weeks and although, in his opinion, there is nothing seriously wrong with me, he has ordered numerous tests and investigations to make absolutely certain all is well. Try getting this service in the UK. There are drawbacks obviously, the need for relatives being involved, a general lack of after care and having to pay for such items as crutches, physiotherapy etc. but on the whole, if we are going to be ill, we would much rather it was here in Spain than in the UK. Our local health centre is open 24 hours a day with a doctor on duty at all times for emergencies and our own doctor speaks fluent English.

However, it is not difficult to obtain an interpreter if you don’t speak Spanish and in a neighbouring town the local council have provided free interpreting services on one day a week. Spain is not perfect, but where in the world is? To anyone with doubts about the standards of health care here I would say the following :-

It’s much better than in the UK, a sad admission from an ex-nurse who has seen standards of nursing, cleanliness etc. go down and down until it seems to have become positively dangerous to go into hospital in the UK. Incidentally,

I have researched the incidence of MRSA in Europe and the latest statistics state that in terms of all hospital acquired infections, the UK has a 48% incidence whilst Spain has 27% – not perfect, but a great deal better. Apparently, if you want to be in safest place you have to live in Norway, which has a 1% incidence! I hope this will reassure anyone who has doubts about care in Spain.

Jim Jubak wrote something recently on, believe it or not, Walmart possibly driving down the admin fat out of the healthcare system through competition and productivity tools such as electronic records.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/LetWalMartFixUSHealthCare.aspx

I agree with the options that you have put forward. One of the important things that needs to be considered for insurance is the portability of employer insurance to personal insurance. I understand that this may drive up the cost of insurance but it will definetly add a lot of support especially to people who do not buy personal medical insurance and only depend on the employer provided insurance.

I also agree with the point of view that the government should not be the one to decide as to what treatment should be provided. But this point itself comes with the mass abuse of the system that we used to see in Canada.

[...] from Being Frugal wrote a great post about health care in America. She wants coverage for low income Americans but no government involvement. As I pointed out in the [...]

I was skeptical of them at first, but after hearing several acquaintances tell me about their great experiences with Samaritan (and having our family health insurance premium go WAY up), we felt we should try it.

My husband still has health insurance through his job (he’s had health problems, so we felt we’d like to maintain as much coverage as we could afford) but my 3 kids and I are covered only under Samaritan. We’ve only been members with them for 6 months, and we’ve already had a $1,600 “claim” completely paid for through other members shares.

I couldn’t be happier with our situation, even though “technically”, my kids and I don’t have medical insurance. :)

We’ve come a long way since “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” — and that takes a lot of money.

It should be noted that unlike Canada Europe has public (universal coverage) AND private health care. Regarding Brits, private health care is usually part and parcel of any benefits package. In moving to Spain we signed up for private health care to have access to English speaking doctors.

I tell you nothing keeps out of the doctors office like a language barrier. I showed up at the “English” hospital, the one were all expats go and the intake staff didn’t speak any English! But I digress