This is what socialized medicine will buy you.
I’ve lived overseas and had to use the socialized medical system.
Anyone with money pays out of pocket for a private doctor. Socialized medicine is only for the under-class.
The fire alarm in our hospital room is blaring. Despite our attempts to stifle the sound with a towel, it is deafening. My husband sits on one side of our room in a stiff vinyl chair cradling our newborn baby boy in his lap, cupping his tiny ears to protect them from the noise, which has been unrelenting for 10 minutes now. He is weary. I am weary. This is our sixth day in a London hospital, and the third consecutive day of fire alarm “testing” on the postnatal ward to which we’ve been assigned. Babies are screaming. Haggard, sleep-deprived new parents like us are losing their minds. But in the hall, the medical staff march on, unfazed. They smile at one another, make small talk, and generally ignore their patients’ complaints. To them, this living hell is normal. It’s just another day in a National Health Service hospital.
The good, the bad, and the ugly of England’s universal health-care system
The fire alarm in our hospital room is blaring. Despite our attempts to stifle the sound with a towel, it is deafening. My husband sits on one side of our room in a stiff vinyl chair cradling our newborn baby boy in his lap, cupping his tiny ears to protect them from the noise, which has been unrelenting for 10 minutes now.