question for brits or folks who spent time over there

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

how does a non native avail himself of the healthcare system there? i have a socialist friend extolling single payer . he claims expertise from "living in england 2 years" he dodges about actually using system but says he never paid. true or is he full of it again

[BlueStarLizzard]

My boss had some major (and at the time, experimental) eye surgeries as well as other medical care over there and didn't pay for it, but this was many years ago, so I don't know if the systems changed.
I *think* she was just visiting. I know she didn't spend that much time in England. She was also a US Senators wife, so it's possible she got special treatment for sake of apperances.

[vaskidmark]

Depending on a variety of factors, he may be telling the truth.  However, my finely-tuned detector suggests that bovine excrement is more likely present than not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service

Foreign nationals also receive free treatment if they have been legally resident in the UK for 12 months, have recently arrived to take up permanent residence, are claiming asylum or have other legal resident status. Citizens of European Economic Area nations, as well as those from countries with which the UK has a reciprocal arrangements, are also entitled to free treatment by using the European Health Insurance Card.[1][2] Foreign nationals may be subject to an interview to establish their nationality and residence status, which must be resolved before non-emergency treatment can commence. Patients who do not qualify for free treatment are asked to pay in advance, or to sign a written undertaking to pay.

So, for the last 12 months of his 24-month stay he might have been eligible, or may have omitted enough of the truth to appear to be eligible.  Someone sojourning there for an extended period of, for the sake of discussion, 24 months probably would not have been considered "to have been legally resident in the UK for 12 months."  Legally present, yes.  Legally resident, not so sure.

BSL's boss may have been the recipient of diplomatic politeness, either from the coffers of the UK (doubtful) or the pocketbook of the US taxpayers.  I'm wuilling to speculate that she did not blatantly go to the UK for experimental medical treatment, but was "struck down" while either being a tourist or, probably more likely, on a junket of some sort.

stay safe.

[AJ Dual]

I have a kinda-sorta ex-friend, or more appropriately Mrs. Dual's ex-friend from here in Wisconsin who met online, dated and married a guy from the UK back in the mid-90's. She first moved over there to try and make a go of it for about a year. (couldn't get a job...) Before they both moved here to the U.S. where his IT degree made him vastly more employable than her early child development/teaching degree did over there.

However, she got rather ill with a bad case of strep, and her throat started closing up as she had some sort of big infectious cyst in her throat. We were arguing about our first go-around with U.S. Socialized medicine/Hillarycare etc. and she brought up how she got seen and didn't have a bill etc. and had minor surgery to drain the cyst or whatever.

She was presumably there on a work/employable visa, although not having a job, it's not as if she ever "payed into" the system there.

Although that was over a decade ago now, and before the UK really started creaking under the strain of their own FSA and SE European and ME immigrants etc. Austerity measures/rationing and just the usual supply problems that naturally when the cost/benefit curve is completely removed from the consumers had yet to get as bad.

[TommyGunn]

My parents lived in Scotland for three years during the mid 1980s.  My grandmother went with them and actually died there, and my father had the opportunity (unfortunatly) to access the system there as well.
My mother also had regular check-ups. 
Some of what they related was rather disturbing.  My mother suffers from glaucoma.  The "test" she had for glaucoma in Scotland consisted of being in a darkened room and being asked when she could see a broomhandle being moved about.
Another observation:  in Scotland an ambulance was a panel truck with a cot.  No extraneous equipment; no heart monitors, resuscitation equipment, nada, zippo. 
The beuraucracy and paperwork were reportedly overbearing and absurd.
One thing I will say they probably did right; my grandmother arrived there when she was in her 90s.  Her American doctor had her on a whole slew of medicines that the Scottish doctor immediatly removed.  Her mental acuity improved remarkably; it was like she thirty years younger.
So it isn't ALL bad news......

[mtnbkr]

My mother suffers from glaucoma.  The "test" she had for glaucoma in Scotland consisted of being in a darkened room and being asked when she could see a broomhandle being moved about.

That's not all that different than the glaucoma testing I underwent here in the US.

My doc was concerned I might be in the early stages of glaucoma when she discovered my optic nerves were severely cupped.  I spent a year getting regular vision tests coupled with optic nerve monitoring.  One of the vision tests was similar to your broomstick test, but with pinpricks of light in a darkened sphere mechanism.  Yeah, it's more precise and higher tech, but essentially the same.

FWIW, no, it wasn't glaucoma.  Turns out my optic nerves are fine.  Some folks just have thin nerves.

Chris

[drewtam]

I would think that experiences from 10yrs ago can be drastically different than experience today. Finances of a country come to bear in short vicious attacks. The stability of social security 10yrs ago is vastly different than it is today (going from large excess to shortfall).