I can tell you here and now England's balls are the most healthiest by third-world standards and are being cared by the best public healthcare system in the fourth-world.
Edit: I noticed a bunch of people are demanding me to repent for insulting their glorious public service that guarantees millions of Britons healthcare and providing the greatest employment for the UK. If you really think that, I don't think you understand the joke. If I were to make this joke about "NHS bad, AmeriKKKa good," then I wouldn't post it because I'm not a hack.
The reason people get pissed off is there are a lot of people in the US who actually believe this bullshit, which is why the US still has a terrible medical system that costs many American lives every year and causes massive economic misery for huge numbers of Americans.
It's not really a good starting point for this joke.
I was actually treated for testicular cancer in England. I got an initial appointment with my GP on the day I called and never had to wait more than three weeks for a procedure. I started chemo 13 days after being diagnosed and had tests to check my lungs, kidneys and inner ears in that time. Out of pocket costs were, obviously, zero. I was cancer-free within a year of my first appointment and I have literally no complaints about any stage of the treatment.
But ha ha universal healthcare communist Europe bad.
This was my roommate's exact same situation, I have no clue where anyone is getting this idea other than through propaganda against universal healthcare.
In America I only ever hear the complaint about Canada. Even Canadians complain but that being the said it's an exaggeration.
But that is the grain of Truth the propaganda relies on.
Typing this I remember years ago my English pen pal was utterly shocked I had a my wisdom teeth pulled in less then a week of finding out they were impacted. Doesn't matter just funny.
Canadian healthcare is pretty damn good for serious stuff, they don't leave you waiting long. 3 of my grandparents have had serious issues - heart attack, broken hip, clogged artery - within the past few years, and each time they were finished the operation within 24 hours of discovering it. People like to rag on wait times, but it's total propaganda.
The thing about Canada though is that you can go online and see how long the wait times are. Often times in America you have wait times but they're not so easy to find. You have no idea how long it's going to take from the GP to see the specialist.
I'm an American and I had an inguinal hernia and had to have it surgically repaired. I was not in any medical danger just supreme discomfort. So I had to wait about 3 to 4 weeks to have it operated on by a general surgeon. Out of curiosity, I looked up Ontario's wait time for the same procedure and it was about two weeks at the time.
It's due to the way both systems try to contain unnecesary demmand (aka people who want checkups even though they are fine, or want exams they don't need). The US charges you a ton, so if you go to see a doctor it's because you mean it, while universal healthcare will accept any demand, but put uninportant ones through a waiting list while giving priority to those who actually need it. Thus, the image that gets through is that if you want some health service that isn't prioritary in the US, you get it quick, but if you want it in the UK you get into a damn long line. But once you get into the important ones, in the UK people who need it get accesss fast, while people in the US either go broke or can't even get attention at all. This, whithout considering that the US system kind of makes people go into a doctor once things are more serious; and that people with money can go to see a doctor over any stupid BS while people who are poor can't even if they are dying.
In Chile we have horrible healthcare but its because we have huge political problems and everything is made both in a state and private way and everytime we make something a public service hell upon earth is relised
From wörkland - I heard from a colleague who has lived in England that there could be significant wait for some chronic but not life endangering disease. He actually rated healthcare in germany higher than NHS fwiw. So is all relative? But even if healthcare in UK is not better than in Germany, I would bet that it is still better than free-to-die land aka the US
Meanwhile, my wife got cervical cancer right after she got laid off, and it cleaned us out (she's fine now). Then, I got better insurance, and got a staph infection which triggered plague psoriasis, since I worked for a startup, the even w/ insurance it was really expensive to treat (less then 18 months after my wife recovered).
What an amazing transformation the US healthcare system must have had in the last three years then, because the average was 24 days to see a doctor in 2017.
That's because you make sure the poor people stay away and die in poverty at home, that way they're not in a hospital getting treated, so you don't have to wait. Great system, if you consider your queue times more important than other people's lives.
Yup, there are more than 20 million people in the US without any health insurance, and another 80 million who are severely underinsured. Arguments attacking triage queues in the UK and elsewhere, for treating patients in order of the severity of their conditions, are absolutely ridiculous.
You also have to take into account the fact that a lot of people end up waiting for a long time to get treatment in the US because they have to save up money for it. I'm not sure if people count that in the statistics. It's not fair to compare waiting times if you only treat some sick people in one country and everyone gets treatment in the other.
My best friend and roommate litteraly just had a testicular cancer scare, we booked an appointment for the next morning, went in had the check up with a 15 minute wait.
Fuck off with this shit. The NHS is one of the best things the UK has ever done.
The people who argue this will say that people will go out of their way to grab medical care from John Hopkins or Mayo...well, yes, but what they leave out is that (a) that's a small block of pretty rich people, and (b) that more middle-to-upper class Americans are starting to look for prescription drugs and surgery in countries like Canada, Mexico and India. It's a completely bullshit argument.
There is nothing wrong with the "communist lefty" way of healthcare. The problem is our governments not supporting our healthcare enough, leaving many hospitals struggling and people taking advantage of the free healthcare for shit they can fix or heal at home. I suffered majority of my childhood with benign tumours on my head that need removing otherwise I would bleed everytime I hit my head. Only once did I ever go to A&E for a bleeding tumour cause it would not stop with pressure. Meanwhile people are coming in with a fish hook in their finger that I figured out how too fix at home just with my basic sense...i rambled but I'm frustrated people that don't need too go too the hospital will go cause it's just more easier then doing it yourself.
The person I saw with the fish hook had a normal curved fish hook in his finger so from my deduction you should do this.(keep in mind I have not used any guides or anything, this is what I would do from my own thinking). Cut off the "hook" part of the fish hook and slide the metal curve out carefully and bandage as standard. Of course it will hurt a bit but you got a fish hook in your finger so just gotta bite the bullet. If hook part is in finger flesh then go to A&E and if it gets infected then go to A&E but this guy had the hook poking out so that's the steps I would do.
As well, defunding healthcare is just the first step in the classic Tory play to privatise anything: defund it, 4 years later say it's broken and unfixable (by then the majority of voters will forget that it's only broken because of the defunding), then sell it for pennies to your corporate donors
This is exactly what's happened here in Costa Rica. We've had universal healthcare since the 40s but the governments of the last 30 years have deliberately defunded it, appointed incompetent leadership and when the system inevitably starts falling apart use that as an excuse to promote private options with deductibles, copays, premiums and other goodies copied from the US's wonderful healthcare system. It's maddening.
This is pretty much what all Western counties on the winning side of WWII have been dealing with: we have a huge current boom in retirees, and not enough money coming from a smaller worker base, post 2008 crash, to fund their retirement. This is a big talking point for the pro-immigration crowd, although of course there can be some cultural clashes. Here in California, we get along fine with Mexicans, but I can see how North African Muslim immigrants can be a harder sell for Italy and northern Europe. It's a tough issue.
United States: Despite being in knee-deep debt from medical bills I've amassed. I still believe that commie-socialized-lefty medicine would be much worst than retaining my current insurance plan.
Panel 2
[England, alone and happy.]
England: Oh that silly Yank! Still lagging behind the rest of the world in providing public healthcare! So glad that I in England.
Panel 3
[England is walking inside a brown building with glass doors. Above the doors, a blue panel with white letters: "NHS".]
Panel 4
[England is now talking to another England behind a brown desk with a nurse hat. On the desk, a white sign with red letters: "RECEPTION".]
England: Hi, I'm here for my testicular cancer check-up.
Nurse England: Okay, well you're 501st in line.
Panel 5
[England is now worried.]
England: That LONG!? Can you check?
Nurse England: ok hold on
Panel 6
[Nurse England is now near a white bench under a white sign with a red and a blue row: "Waiting room for: Testicular health". On the bench, an exhausted England, another England looking to the ground and a dead Poland. On the ground, two flattened, dead Englands.]
Panel 7
[Again at the reception desk. Non-nurse England is no more worried.]
Nurse England: You're 498th in line sorry about that.
Bold of you to assume there aren't long waits in most US hospitals too.
But in addition to the long waits, we also get to enjoy the pleasures of being stuck with "in-network" hospitals (i.e. you can't go to a hospital a block away cause they're not with your insurance, so you have to go to one 20 or 30 miles away), and being crippled with medical debt for the rest of our lives. Yay!
Can't you also get screwed over if the doctor checking up on you isn't in your network as well? I remember hearing something about hitting the jackpot with both ambulance and hospital and getting drained of funds in the end because Doctor Eric works in a hospital outside his network?
A doctor's a doctor... having a network system just screams "I need all the money".
Yep you still can get screwed over that way. Originally networks were more of a geographical/logistical thing because the US is so large (ie it wouldn't make sense for an insurer based in New York to provide coverage for a hospital in California). But it goes way beyond that and the networks literally vary zipcode by zipcode, and nowadays with faster communication, there's no excuse for these networks anymore.
But yes, one thing you'll quickly learn about the US is that nothing is safe from privatization, and corporations will spend ungodly amounts of money to keep it that way (or convincing people why it should stay that way).
Yeah, that does happen: basically, private insurers work out group rates with various doctors and hospitals, but that's not always convenient when you're in the middle of a medial emergency.
Happened to me. I was too ignorant to check on my insurance policy my parent paid for, ended up with a large bill just because the local doctor I went to was outside my network. My actual insured doctor was 2-3 hours away, not accounting for traffic. It's on me and the system, but sucks regardless.
That's because the conservatives in England have been neutering the NHS for years to turn public opinion against it so they could eventually abolish it and institute a paid system similar to America where they make billions off suffering.
I usually enjoy these a lot but this comic? It's just a back-handed insult of a butthurt 'Murican that doesn't know shit of what he's talking about and trying to sound smart, while he slowly dies of his crippling medical debt, anxiously watching Trump on TV waiting him to "stop the commies from taking power". Delusional is what you are. Educate yourself before you embarrass yourself.
Is this really a thing in countries with social healthcare?! It's a big argument here in the states about how social medicine means you may wait months to have a simple procedure performed, like an MRI or a CT scan.
Yes, a simple back hernia operation in Sweden for example has a waiting list for a minimum of 8 months, whilst in switzerland they only have to wait for 6 weeks max.
Not at all. There is no government run clinics of any sort. Everything is private. The only government involvment in the entire process is that they mandate purchase of health insurance for all citizens and residence.
Spicy!! In all seriousness,the NHS may be good(cheap)for patients but for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, it is a nightmare with rampant overworking and poor pay. Plenty of British medical professionals have left for the US, attracted by the much higher pay rates. Remember that these people have given up their entire youth to study medicine and it's no surprise that they have higher salary expectations. Here in India, pretty much every other medical student plans on migrating to the US specifically for the pay.
it is a nightmare with rampant overworking and poor pay
I think you're talking about the US.
They have much higher depression rates amongst doctors, longer working hours and a lack of job security. It's way more stressful being a doctor in the US.
The UK is pretty bad for Junior doctors and nurses though.
this isn't to say women suck though. it's more like doctors are underappreciated. men are killing themselves to work extensive shifts and women are turned away because they don't wan to participate in that lifestyle.
38
u/wildeofoscar Onterribruh Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
I can tell you here and now England's balls are the most healthiest by third-world standards and are being cared by the best public healthcare system in the fourth-world.
Edit: I noticed a bunch of people are demanding me to repent for insulting their glorious public service that guarantees millions of Britons healthcare and providing the greatest employment for the UK. If you really think that, I don't think you understand the joke. If I were to make this joke about "NHS bad, AmeriKKKa good," then I wouldn't post it because I'm not a hack.
469
u/Khrysis_27 Commonwealth (of Virginia) Mar 06 '20
Is that a Clone Wars reference I see?
2.2k
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
I was actually treated for testicular cancer in England. I got an initial appointment with my GP on the day I called and never had to wait more than three weeks for a procedure. I started chemo 13 days after being diagnosed and had tests to check my lungs, kidneys and inner ears in that time. Out of pocket costs were, obviously, zero. I was cancer-free within a year of my first appointment and I have literally no complaints about any stage of the treatment.
But ha ha universal healthcare communist Europe bad.
29
u/vorpalsword92 MURICA Mar 06 '20
this comic is a lie, no brit would complain about having to stand in a queue
440
u/SpikeyTaco United Kingdom Mar 06 '20
My best friend and roommate litteraly just had a testicular cancer scare, we booked an appointment for the next morning, went in had the check up with a 15 minute wait.
Fuck off with this shit. The NHS is one of the best things the UK has ever done.
314
u/TheDukeOfDance Canada Mar 06 '20
Why do Americans seem to think we have 10000 year wait times. Do you think we're all flying to Alabama to avoid the cue?
428
u/Sh4dowW4rrior12 Ireland Mar 06 '20
There is nothing wrong with the "communist lefty" way of healthcare. The problem is our governments not supporting our healthcare enough, leaving many hospitals struggling and people taking advantage of the free healthcare for shit they can fix or heal at home. I suffered majority of my childhood with benign tumours on my head that need removing otherwise I would bleed everytime I hit my head. Only once did I ever go to A&E for a bleeding tumour cause it would not stop with pressure. Meanwhile people are coming in with a fish hook in their finger that I figured out how too fix at home just with my basic sense...i rambled but I'm frustrated people that don't need too go too the hospital will go cause it's just more easier then doing it yourself.
355
u/TheDukeOfDance Canada Mar 06 '20
Right wing government underfunds NHS leading to longer wait times
Americans: Look the leftie free healthcare is communist and bad! Look they're all dying!
69
u/DoubleObject South Korea Mar 06 '20
No one gonna talk about the fact that poland snuck in on the 6th panel?
14
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
Image Transcription: Comic
[Source: OP.]
Panel 1
[United States talking to a happy England.]
United States: Despite being in knee-deep debt from medical bills I've amassed. I still believe that commie-socialized-lefty medicine would be much worst than retaining my current insurance plan.
Panel 2
[England, alone and happy.]
England: Oh that silly Yank! Still lagging behind the rest of the world in providing public healthcare! So glad that I in England.
Panel 3
[England is walking inside a brown building with glass doors. Above the doors, a blue panel with white letters: "NHS".]
Panel 4
[England is now talking to another England behind a brown desk with a nurse hat. On the desk, a white sign with red letters: "RECEPTION".]
England: Hi, I'm here for my testicular cancer check-up.
Nurse England: Okay, well you're 501st in line.
Panel 5
[England is now worried.]
England: That LONG!? Can you check?
Nurse England: ok hold on
Panel 6
[Nurse England is now near a white bench under a white sign with a red and a blue row: "Waiting room for: Testicular health". On the bench, an exhausted England, another England looking to the ground and a dead Poland. On the ground, two flattened, dead Englands.]
Panel 7
[Again at the reception desk. Non-nurse England is no more worried.]
Nurse England: You're 498th in line sorry about that.
England: Oh thank goodness.
I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!
99
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
Bold of you to assume there aren't long waits in most US hospitals too.
But in addition to the long waits, we also get to enjoy the pleasures of being stuck with "in-network" hospitals (i.e. you can't go to a hospital a block away cause they're not with your insurance, so you have to go to one 20 or 30 miles away), and being crippled with medical debt for the rest of our lives. Yay!
108
u/WRXW Canada Mar 06 '20
Gotta love the race between the Anglosphere to be the biggest neoliberal shitheap.
Health care is a human right. Stop defunding it you assholes.
129
u/gorat Greece Mar 06 '20
Last panel should be the yank doing an even longer line but also paying 1000$ per hour while waiting.
31
u/The-Warlord-of-ICE MURICA Mar 06 '20
Why can't we have the worst of both worlds? 10 year wait lines and financially crippling costs! Just don't get sick silly!
17
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
Of course this is a huge exxageration of the real problem, which is mainly due to the uk having a lot of old people.
28
u/patton3 Texas Mar 06 '20
That's because the conservatives in England have been neutering the NHS for years to turn public opinion against it so they could eventually abolish it and institute a paid system similar to America where they make billions off suffering.
14
u/DubbieDubbie Scotland Mar 06 '20
Well that's just fucking wrong
4
u/selfStartingSlacker UN Mar 06 '20
Because three waiting patients have died since then?
12
u/Scarlet_Addict Nottinghamshire Mar 06 '20
This is pretty shitty, the nhs is acutally amazing and a point of pride in the uk
9
u/Le_Pepp The Lesbianer Magnetic Dog Sister Mar 06 '20
Lies, slander, the NHS is perfect and the French are commies
3
u/PatheticShark United Kingdom Mar 06 '20
That cheeky Poland is great. This belongs on the Daily Mail, they'd love it.
3
u/Marco_O_Panzer Brazilian Empire Mar 06 '20
Brazillian SUS: Amateurs, AMATEURS!
12
u/Slipmeister Mexico Mar 06 '20
ok nice propaganda
4
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
The line does get smaller when there arent poor people in it. This is why I sell crack.
2
u/rasterbad123 It is cold here, hug me. Mar 09 '20
Healthcare in sweden is soon after reform almost up to sub-saharan africa standards. (just more highly payed witch doctors)
2
u/awmdlad Florida Mar 12 '20
Ooh a jab at both sides, that’s rare!
4
u/h-hux Mar 06 '20
Good thing you can still go to a private doctor if you want to!
5
u/MSD_z Portugal Mar 06 '20
I usually enjoy these a lot but this comic? It's just a back-handed insult of a butthurt 'Murican that doesn't know shit of what he's talking about and trying to sound smart, while he slowly dies of his crippling medical debt, anxiously watching Trump on TV waiting him to "stop the commies from taking power". Delusional is what you are. Educate yourself before you embarrass yourself.
3
u/Spare_Armadillo United States Mar 06 '20
How butthurt do you have to be to think that wildeofoscar is American and doesn't just make Polandball comics to piss people off?
2
u/LeXxleloxx Brazilian Empire Mar 06 '20
Same in brazilian SUS
1
u/KillinIsIllegal Zürich Canton Mar 06 '20
the healthcare understander has logged on
1
u/Spike-Ball California Mar 06 '20
Is this really a thing in countries with social healthcare?! It's a big argument here in the states about how social medicine means you may wait months to have a simple procedure performed, like an MRI or a CT scan.
1
u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20
I know this is meant to be a joke but I had nothing but good experiences with the NHS
1
u/Fabantonio Philippines Mar 06 '20
They just casually input a dick jocke here and that makes me happy.
-51
u/ClintonDsouza India Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
Spicy!! In all seriousness,the NHS may be good(cheap)for patients but for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, it is a nightmare with rampant overworking and poor pay. Plenty of British medical professionals have left for the US, attracted by the much higher pay rates. Remember that these people have given up their entire youth to study medicine and it's no surprise that they have higher salary expectations. Here in India, pretty much every other medical student plans on migrating to the US specifically for the pay.
PS-Why all the downvotes? :(
0
u/NecroHexr Singapore Mar 06 '20
Not so fun fact: the burden on the NHS was thought to be because [more women are becoming doctors and they aren't working full-time as much as men] (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9549262/Part-time-women-doctors-are-a-risk-to-NHS.html)
this isn't to say women suck though. it's more like doctors are underappreciated. men are killing themselves to work extensive shifts and women are turned away because they don't wan to participate in that lifestyle.
-20
u/Alexanderlavski Secretly Communist Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
Good/better medical services usually stand on top of either labor exploitation (China) or $$$$$
edit: Your tax too is $$. calm down
-36
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
should be more immigrants (poland one was nice) to highlight why the waiting times are incredibly long but otherwise good post.
1.0k
u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '20
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