Live in the US. Food is twice as expensive as the UK. Basic food doesn’t have proper standards. Everything has sugar in it. I mean like everything. Even bread and “healthy cereal”. Healthcare even with half decent insurance costs a lot. Even after you pay the insurance.

So I pay about 100 dollars a month for just the insurance. Every time I go to a doctor in my insurance network. 30 quid. That’s just to be seen. Every time I get referred to someone who is a specialist. For example if you have an eye infection. About 300 quid.

Then if the medicine is in your insurance network, great. It might be about a tenner. If not the medicine could be around 50-100 quid. For some pills.

You have a thing called a deductible. Essentially this is around 3-4000 quid on my plan (I’m very lucky to have ok insurance. A significant amount of people don’t) So if you break your leg and the surgery is more than 4 grand, You pay the the 4 grand your insurer pays the rest.

I had bad chest pains once after overworking and not sleeping enough and in panic went to the ER not being fully aware that hospitals are classed in the highest bracket of cost. I had a blood test and was told it was nothing to worry about. I got the bill and it was 2000 quid.

That was something that normally, in the UK in the good old days before dramatic cuts, you would sit and wait for around 45 minutes to an hour to be seen. For no cost whatsoever. I broke my finger in 4 places in Newcastle and stayed overnight after surgery and had aftercare...

For absolutely no cost after my parents at the time we’re paying tax toward the NHS. Imagine your child has an accident and all of a sudden you have to pay a 4000 quid bill. Not many households can deal with that. The NHS is the bedrock of UK and props up unfortunate people.

I’m glad I’ve experienced what it’s like to live in one of the most capitalist countries in the world. And that’s why I could never, ever, even consider voting for any party that would even remotely consider cutting back and dismantling the NHS for a insurance based system.

People in the UK have no idea how good the NHS is. Try living without it. Try smelling the chlorinated oversized hormone pumped chicken they’re allowed to sell over here. They’re hoping to sell all that shit to the UK and the Tory’s want to let them and get rich of it.

The amount of times I’ve seen Go Fund Me campaigns for people needing help to pay medical bills for a serious illness is crazy. I’m pretty sure paying an extra tiny bit of cash per month the equivalent of a garbage Netflix TV streaming package to give you that safety net is ok.

Sorry I’m just absolutely furious at the moment and just want to point out differences I’ve noticed between the US and the UK. We’re so close to bridging the gap and letting more super rich wield even more power over normal people who are just trying to get along with life.