Barbara Hays: Single payer health care in England

To the Editor:

Health Care is in the news. Here is our experience with the “single Payer”system in England in 1982,83: We where in Oxford where my husband was teaching at Oxford University. I noted that the sum deducted from his monthly check was about the same amount we were paying to Blue Cross, Blue Shield in the US at that time. Being essentially healthy we did not have an occasion to visit a Medical doctor. I did visit a dentist because of a rather bad tooth ache. The British system covered dentistry as well as medical doctors. The dentist told me the the tooth was infected, that he could pull the tooth, but if I wanted to have a root canal to “save” the tooth, I would have to go into the “private system”. I did, and it cost about what I would have paid in the US for a root canal at that time.

This suggests that the NON government medical services had a place for private physicians and dentists as well as those paid through the tax payer supported program.

I personally believe we should have a single payer system run by the government as we do now with medicare and medicaid. Those of us that have private insurance coverage do help pay for services of those not covered because, if we go to the hospital, the hospitals fees are set to cover the services they provide for the destitute. I believe I have been helping to pay medical services to many over the years because I never used the hospital except to give birth to my children. I had a good friend in those years who was covered by the same type of insurance as we were. In that time she had back surgery and heart surgery and is now fine! Different people have different health care needs. Right now our physicians have to hire an “extra” person to keep track of what is covered by the various health insurance systems their patients have. With a single payer system they would not need that “extra” employee!! (unless they had some supplemental private insurance!!!)

Barbara Hays

Boulder