Althouse: "Among my friends, getting private healthcare insurance through your company is seen as the best work perk there is. I have paid £70 for a private appointment...."

March 27, 2026

"Among my friends, getting private healthcare insurance through your company is seen as the best work perk there is. I have paid £70 for a private appointment...."

"Even for the friends who don’t get private healthcare for free through work, paying close to £100 for a private GP appointment is seen as worth it, a small price to pay for peace of mind about health.... As one [friend] says: 'The anxiety of waiting so long to get something fixed just isn’t worth it.... With the NHS, I feel like you have to start with a doctor who is tired, stressed and doesn’t have much time for you.' Another friend tells me she has noticed that private doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics than NHS ones. So when she thinks she has tonsillitis, she goes private to make sure she gets the medicine. Yet another goes private when she has 'big scares,' she says. 'Because of the NHS wait times, if I have something that I’m really worried about and that is affecting my mental health, that’s when I go private.'..."

From "I’m 30 and I avoid the NHS if I can. Here’s why/The latest survey shows that most people my age feel the same, says Georgina Roberts" (London Times).

43 comments:

Iman said...: Thanks, 0bama!!!; 3/27/26, 8:00 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: “We’re probably more anxious and paranoid about our health than our parents were at our age. With the internet at our fingertips, it’s so easy to convince ourselves we have something seriously wrong with us. Whenever I google a list of my symptoms, it comes up with a scary condition I might have.”; 3/27/26, 8:05 AM
n.n said...: Market economics with a good bedside manner is affordable and desirable.; 3/27/26, 8:07 AM
Enigma said...: Take your pick:

1. Old USA: Insurance firms soak you for all you can afford.
2. NHS: Bumbling government bureaucrats allow fraud, take a management cut, and then ration services.
3. Combine the two with Obamacare -- it's so much better now with TWO embedded layers of greed and corruption.; 3/27/26, 8:07 AM
gilbar said...: ..'The anxiety of waiting so long to get something fixed just isn’t worth it.... With the NHS, I feel like you have to start with a doctor who is tired, stressed and doesn’t have much time for you.."

sure SOUNDS LIKE national free health care is The WAY To GO!
crappy service for the proles.. Excellent PRIVATE service for The Rich

you can see why america's rich want it here too!; 3/27/26, 8:09 AM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: I dealt with Canadian health services [not "care"] for over 20 years before returning to the States in 1991. Back then it was decent., even in rural areas. These days, other than a few major cities, pretty much hopeless.

This is simplistic, but accurate. With private health care, each new patient or procedure is a source of *revenue*. In government-based systems, each new patient or procedure is an EXPENSE.

There's a reason that in Canada government-mediated "suicides" not account for 6 percent of deaths. We can't get you the care you need, but we'll kill you gently. No more expense for that one. Next ...; 3/27/26, 8:17 AM
rehajm said...: It’s fun to blame the curruptocrats but the patients who demand everything be the best and free contribute to the problem…; 3/27/26, 8:17 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: What's that old line about putting certain people in charge of the Sahara prompting a shortage of sand? Yeah.; 3/27/26, 8:20 AM
Enigma said...: @rehajm -- But we NEED white-glove garbage service too. We NEED it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YihiSqO4jnA; 3/27/26, 8:29 AM
tim maguire said...: After living in Canada for over a decade, I consider single-payer healthcare an issue on which reasonable people can disagree. Sure, there are aspects in which the American system is better (not as much as conservative America thinks!), but there's a freedom from not having your insurance tied to your job, of knowing that whatever other choices you make in your life, you and your family will always get medical care without having to worry about how you'll pay for it (even after 14 years, it still feels weird to leave the doctor's office without pulling out my wallet for the co-pay).

But every system is a different, every system has its strengths and weaknesses. The British seem to have the worst of both worlds--they are paying for a public system that doesn’t give them decent care, so they have to pay twice if they get sick or injured.; 3/27/26, 8:30 AM
bagoh20 said...: You left the door open, so people snuck into your house and ate all the food, and you wonder why the refrigerator is empty, and you still haven't locked the damn door.; 3/27/26, 8:31 AM
Marek said...: I think Enigma nailed it.

I moved from the US to the UK pre-Obamacare. I was disappointed with the quality of service here. Seems now the US is just as bad if not worse.

We give our employees private insurance but as a partner I don't have it. I just go to the cash-pay private hospital. The trick is that once you get good service outside the NHS, if there is any medicine involved you need to convince the NHS to write the prescription. That's the only way to get the good pricing. A private prescription costs about 8x the NHS cost.; 3/27/26, 8:33 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Basically, the USA style system hurts middle/working class Americans. Lose your job - you're outta luck. The rich can always get good care, the poor have medicaid. The old people have medicare.

And USA doesn't have wait times? Really. So, why did Scott Adams have to ask Trump to help get him a cancer treatment? He was on a six month waiting list.

I always hate stupid losertarians and "Muh free market" types. Health care isn't supposed to be about someone making $$. Drugs are the worst of it.

I guess I supposed to shop for Ambulance services and ER prices when my wife got sick. And then give my ER doctor a low rating on Yelp if he gave her bad care.

Right now, we subsidize drug research for the entire world. We pay up the ass for drugs, and the excuse is "We need it for research". The rest of the world then gets it later for a much lower price.; 3/27/26, 8:39 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Yes, Canada is solving its wait-times problem through assisted suicide. LOL.; 3/27/26, 8:40 AM
narciso said...: This is what your fave obama wrought because he wanted to make the system more like the nhs; 3/27/26, 8:41 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Canadian Establishment - Lots of people needing health care, so long wait times. Sucks to be you. And we've decided to let in zillions of immigrants and have open borders - so it'll be even worse. Too bad you're not well-to-do. And if you don't like that? Well, shut up racist.; 3/27/26, 8:42 AM
rehajm said...: If you wanted to design the system to do everything wrong perfectly, with all the wrong incentives in place, our current system would be close to perfection…; 3/27/26, 8:54 AM
rehajm said...: …and like everything else government poisons what looks impossible to solve would suddenly be perfection for most participants if we just put three or four of the right incentives in place…; 3/27/26, 8:56 AM
bagoh20 said...: The only system we avoid using for healthcare is a free market. The free market is avoided when the providers of a system have a more profitable one for themselves. In a socialist system it's politicians and bureaucrats who are the providers. In the American system it's also them plus the companies providing insurance and healthcare. The problem is a simple one for both. The people buying and using healthcare have no way of choosing what they want at a price they are willing to pay, so, of course, they get neither.
Imagine the quality and cost of a car or any other product if it were provided under that system. The customer in both current systems has no input at all.; 3/27/26, 9:02 AM
Iman said...: BIG Zer0 0bama not only ruined our healthcare, he’s now being forced to watch as President Trump undoes everything he made Americans pay for in Iran.; 3/27/26, 9:03 AM
Big Mike said...: Basically, the Brits haven’t done anything right since Churchill’s first stint as Prime Minister.; 3/27/26, 9:15 AM
tcrosse said...: As P.J. O'Rourke said when he was still funny (and alive), if you think health care is expansive now, wait 'til it's free.; 3/27/26, 9:25 AM
jaydub said...: Same issues with the Spanish public healthcare system. Most middle class who can afford it join neighborhood clinics for urgent care, which used to cost about 100 euros per month when we lived there. Spanish hospital stays are very different from those in the US. Specifically, medical treatment is "free, " (except for wage deductions similar to Medicare deductions in the US.) Extras, such as nurse care, food, bathroom assistance and the like are the responsibility of the patient's family. Specialty care requires a long wait for most non-life-threatening treatment. Specialists are not always available as most of them ride a circuit and only visit individual neighborhood clinics once a month, plus there are standard waiting times of a year or more for such "elective" procedures as knee replacement (took a Spanish friend over three years of constant pain to get both his "free" knee replacements.) There is no guarantee of seeing the same doctor more than once, which often leads to different treatments regimes for every doctor visit. The wife of the same friend with the knee replacement had to quit work in order to tend her dementia-suffering mother while she was bedridden in the hospital. Like the NIH in England, Spanish hospitals do not prescribe pain medication or antibiotics except in extreme cases. Almost all foreigners, particularly Americans, including us, have health insurance with private hospitals which are run on a system somewhat similar to US healthcare.; 3/27/26, 9:25 AM
Anthony said...: Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...
I dealt with Canadian health services [not "care"] for over 20 years before returning to the States in 1991. Back then it was decent., even in rural areas. These days, other than a few major cities, pretty much hopeless.

I feel like something shifted over the course of the 1990s. I started 1990 working for a large city public health department. And actually liked it. The people genuinely seemed dedicated to helping out the lower rungs of society in addition to basic public health functions. Yeah, in some ways, typical "government employees".

By the time I left in 2005 it had become a politicized mess. Even a hard-core Democrat friend got fed up with it and left. I like to say that they went from actually believing they were serving the public to believing the public was there to serve them.; 3/27/26, 10:30 AM
Joe Bar said...: Free health care is worth exactly what you pay for it. I have experienced it in Germany, and you are not missing anything!

Not to mention the poor young woman they just executed in Spain. They had her organs doles out to others days before they pulled her plug.

As @bagoh2o said, we continually avoid using the free market for health care, hence it's price will continue to escalate.; 3/27/26, 10:37 AM
Levi Starks said...: So, the NHS is essentially the VA hospital for veterans, or in olden days the “county clinic”.
It’s there as a last resort, but hopefully you never be in such a sad state of affairs as to actually have to use it.; 3/27/26, 10:41 AM
Peachy said...: Government run, tax payer raped healthcare is shit. Leftists want more.; 3/27/26, 11:02 AM
hombre said...: Like Democrat infamy the decline of Britain no longer calls forth “unbelievable.”; 3/27/26, 11:40 AM
Howard said...: I use the Internet and AI to maximize my health. Haven't seen a doctor in three years. Don't take meds anymore. Been basically doing a modified RFK Jr. approach to diet and exercise for about 10-years. Haven't been this strong and happy since my early 30's. It's all about the gut. Keep it tight, flat and full of butyrate generating microbiome.; 3/27/26, 11:56 AM
loudogblog said...: Last year, I had roughly a month from the date of my falling on the concrete floor until my predicted death date. I was able to get a liver transplant in three weeks and that saved my life. For me, delaying even a week, would not have been an option.; 3/27/26, 12:03 PM
bagoh20 said...: Congratulants! I got mine 20 years ago due to liver cancer. When I got it, I was just hoping for a few more years, but my health has been great ever since, and cancer free. Enjoy life.; 3/27/26, 12:34 PM
loudogblog said...: Marek said...
"We give our employees private insurance but as a partner I don't have it."

If your employer doesn't provide subsidized health insurance, you should purchase it for yourself. Also many states, like California, will have their own state subsidized systems. It's worth investigating.

Also, a lot of people suffer from the misconception that you don't pay for employer subsidized insurance. Although it varies from company to company, most employers will require you to pay a percentage of that monthly insurance bill.

Going without health insurance is just too big a risk, especially as you get older. If I hadn't had health insurance, I would be on the hook for a half a million dollars for my recent transplant and about two thousand dollars a month for the ten prescription meds I'm taking.; 3/27/26, 12:38 PM
Josephbleau said...: The only problem with health care is that the government is incredibly corrupt. We are seeing it now in California and Minnesota. Congress went to Washington to do good and ended up doing well.; 3/27/26, 12:43 PM
Josephbleau said...: The purpose of Obamacare was to make connected people rich while fooling the voters into thinking it is helping them.; 3/27/26, 12:46 PM
Humperdink said...: Headline in the Ottawa Sun today (how timely): “ This B.C. woman was offered MAID before other treatments. She said no to death and went on to climb a volcano”

For the uninitiated, MAID is Canadian government sponsored (read: encouraged) assisted suicide. Forget “First do no harm”, let’s do the most harm.

https://ottawasun.com/news/canada/i-did-not-want-to-die-miriam-lancaster-medical-assistance-in-dying; 3/27/26, 1:04 PM
Temujin said...: On a lesser scale, that's why we have Canadians coming into the US to get needed surgeries done. At least we did before Mark Carney ran against Donald Trump.
They had to wait so long for needed services in Canada, those who could would opt to come over here. I used to see it in Detroit when I was a young guy. And now see it in Florida as an older guy. Times have changed, but that hasn't. Canadians who can, do what they have to in order to get necessary surgery in a timely manner.; 3/27/26, 1:08 PM
Temujin said...: One added point. It also seems that Americans who can, and who want to, go over to Canada to end their lives. That's one thing Canadians don't have to wait for.; 3/27/26, 1:09 PM
Humperdink said...: I find it ironic the Lefties label both abortion and government suicide as healthcare. You leave with no pulse.; 3/27/26, 1:55 PM
CJ said...: Just in case readers didn’t pick up on it - in Britain they allow some private healthcare. In Canada you have to go through the government system. AFAIK only Cuba and North Korea do likewise.; 3/27/26, 4:04 PM
Craig Mc said...: Same for Australia. The public system is geared for critical emergencies. As a result, anything that isn't one is relegated to an afterthought.

You could spend a day in ER with a serious, but not immediately threatening complaint, before even being looked at, followed by several days in a public ward waiting for treatment - assuming they have a free bed.

Or you could check into a private ER, pay the bucks and be seen to immediately. If needed, you'll be checked in and dealt with, but just as likely you'll be on your way home before you would have even been seen in the public ER.

If you're working, time is money - pay for private.

That said, the public system is pretty damn good for critical emergencies.; 3/27/26, 4:09 PM
Lazarus said...: The NHS is the most honored British institution ... second only to complaining about the NHS.; 3/27/26, 5:50 PM
Lazarus said...: And people, please, give Health Canada time.

In a few months they'll have messed things up so badly that Canadians will be coming to the US to be euthanized.; 3/27/26, 5:52 PM
Hassayamper said...: After living in Canada for over a decade, I consider single-payer healthcare an issue on which reasonable people can disagree.

The purpose of government is to do what no individual can reasonably be expected to do without bankrupting themselves. In the case of health care, it's reasonable to have government pick up the tab for people with chronic illnesses like diabetes that require a lifetime of care, or who are too old to work and pay for their own drastically increasing medical requirements, or people who've had catastrophic accidents or transplants or extremely expensive cancer treatments and so on. That is what people want when they say they want government health care.

Government cannot and should not pay for every skinned knee and chest X-ray and broken arm.

The best systems, like Switzerland and Singapore, recognize this dichotomy and provide single payer coverage from the government for the massive medical bills of the most unfortunate above us. For the normal healthy person, medical care is covered by tax-favored health savings accounts and efficiently shopping around for care on the private market. It's the best of both worlds.

Obamacare is the WORST of both worlds.

It will never be fixed, because Obamacare was designed to enrich the insurance companies, not take care of sick people, and they slosh oceans of money around Washington to make sure it stays that way.; 3/27/26, 7:15 PM