I've been in hospital in Australia a few times and in New Zealand once, both countries with socialized health care. A month ago I was in hospital in the United States for a badly broken leg. I'd had a bad fall which resulted in a double compound fracture, my tibia and fibula both shattered leaving my left foot hanging loose like you've probably seen in various nasty youtube videos. This hurts about as much as you'd expect, ie beyond anything I could have imagined.
I took this in the ER, you can see the angle of my foot to the angle of my knee. So, so, so much fun. I was shocked at the differences between the two systems, and my stay in that US hospital was one of the worst experiences of my life.
Ambulances:
In Australia, my father owns a farm about an hour north of Sydney. Two days ago he was up a ladder trimming branches with a chainsaw. He slipped and fell about 2 meters onto hard earth dislocating his elbow, though at the time we thought it was broken given the pain he was in. Despite the relative distance from civilization the ambulance arrived in under 20 minutes. The paramedics were professional and made sure dad had both an inhaled painkiller and two shots of morphine before they moved him, which they did with great care on a gurney. The ambulance ride was totally free.
In America, the ambulance was on site after my fall very fast, I was in Los Angeles so, unsurprising. They were LAFD guys and pretty cool, but they didn't give me anything for the pain, which was considerable - my left foot was twisted around into an impossible angle, and jagged ends of bone were bulging against the flesh of my leg. They opted to pick me up and carry me out by hand. While carrying me out they accidentally allowed the foot to droop causing a wave of pain beyond anything I have ever experienced. In the ambulance the first thing they did was ask for my insurance information. I didn't know but I told them that my girlfriend had the details and she was on her way. I asked, well, begged, for pain relief but was told they didn't want to do anything that would contra-indicate the ER's options. It hurt like ****, I couldn't believe this. Around this time they told me they couldn't feel a pulse in my foot, I was already freaked out and this was the last straw, I had to insist they give me oxygen to give me something to focus on, I was hyperventilating, face going numb, fingers curling up involuntarily. They did tear up the invoice though which was nice.
Hospitals:
In Australia I was hospitalized at the turn of the century for a tonsular abscess that eventually required the removal of my tonsils and a year later for acute pancreatitus. I think the quality of care of any given hospital stay is dependent on the staff you have for the visit, regardless of the health care system you're in. For example the Aussies treated me for the abscess but missed the, I'm told, obvious fact that the infected tonsil had died and needed to be removed. I eventually had it taken out in New Zealand after being really sick for a month, the doctors here in Sydney were mystified and kept giving me antibiotics, in NZ a doctor worked it out inside of a minute of looking in my throat. At any rate, I had no health insurance and all of this cost me nothing.
My mother was diagnosed and treated for leukemia for 18 months in Sydney, in a cancer unit run by one of the countries foremost researchers of the disease. The care she got was excellent, some of the injections she received were $2000 a shot. Even though they knew the type of the disease she had was terminal except in children, they worked tirelessly and relentlessly to give her even just a few more months of life. Some of her doctors and nurses even came to the funeral. She had no health insurance, this was all free. Of all the worries we had during this time, how to pay for her health care was never one of them.
In the US, every time someone moved me they forgot the foot wasn't held on except for a few veins and a bit of meat and it would flop down upon which I would see stars and howl. Fun. They strapped my leg up with my foot pointing nearly a full 90 degrees from where it's supposed to be causing a lot of unnecessary pain, when the surgeon saw this the next day he was pretty pissed off they had done that, and re-strapped it the right way.
I had my first encounter with the hospitals billing department in the ER and they kept coming in during my stay to ask for payment/insurance details, something you just do not get in a socialized medical care system. Being new to the US and seriously injured this adds an incredible amount of stress to the situation. By the next morning the nurses on my ward had stopped answering my call button but I couldn't seem to get enough visits from ladies with clipboards wanting my father's Amex number. One of those cows rang my father at 5am Sydney time and demanded he deposit $2400 right away, despite this being covered under my insurance. Dad swears she gave him the impression my treatment would 'suffer' unless he paid up. I wonder what they would have done if he said no? Probably left me by the curb in my blue gown with my *** hanging out of it. Coming just months after my mother's passing I am furious they did this to my father.
Adding to the fun the cannula in my arm got tissued somehow, meaning all the painkillers they were giving me went into the flesh of my arm and not my circulation system thus not working at all. I think most of the nurses that first night decided I was junkie or something because I kept complaining (and eventually, weeping and sobbing) that the shots weren't working so of course I had to be lying. The next morning I hadn't slept, I was in agony beyond what I felt was my physical limit, thats when I snapped and yelled at the head nurse, pretty much telling her what I thought of the US health system so far. You know how they found out the first IV line was faulty? I had to ask a nurse to give me a new one. She wasn't going to then I made her watch while she pushed saline through it and nothing happened except for the bruised skin around the insertion point swelled up. Then she puts the new one in my hand it it works perfectly. After a night and half a day essentially laying there with no pain relief and my left foot broken off. This is the same nurse who told me the windows don't open when I asked her for some air because I was sweating and about to be sick. They did open, another nurse had opened them for me a day earlier. I tried to convince her they did open, she refused to try. Fighting the rising nausea and pain I got the **** up out of bed in my cast and trailing IV lines and ******* opened the window in front of her, she just looked at me dumbly. So, so ******* stupid. Another nurse had a habit of not sterilizing the line before injecting it which is a huge medical no-no, that's how people get infections and die. The next time she tried to do that I made her swab it first. She had the swabs in her pocket, she just couldn't be bothered to use them. Wow... getting angry remembering all of this.
There were some great staff there, the surgical team were movie-level professional, or like the cast from some top rating show about smart and sexy doctors, and from the second night the night-team were run by this amazing compassionate nurse and her team. They were all very professional and caring - genuinely so - but some of the day team can suck my dick.
So there you go. One's man's experiences in both systems. I've heard horror stories from people who've been in hospitals around the world and what happened to me could have happened anywhere. The only difference is it cost just under $50,000 in the US and would have destroyed me financially had I not had insurance whereas over here, whether you get a good team of doctors or nurses or not, it doesn't cost you a ******* cent no matter if you're the head of a corporation or unemployed. The downside is, your taxes are higher to pay for the health care system, but on the other hand given the insane amount of money the US spends on defense maybe with a little budget juggling taxes wouldn't have to go up by much. Just saying.
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