The cost of private healthcare, UK vs USA
As UK residents, a lot of us rely on the NHS for all of our healthcare needs. Although, as the wait times for NHS assistance can sometimes feel like a lifetime, many people have turned to private healthcare.
Here at online pharmacy medino, we've taken a look into the true cost of healthcare within the UK, researching into the most common hospital admission reasons, alongside the associated cost if you treat them through private healthcare in the UK. We've compared those costs to treating or even requiring medical assistance for the same issues in the USA, where there is no National Health Service and anyone requiring medical treatment ideally needs medical insurance.
The most common UK hospital admissions
Looking into hospital admissions across NHS trusts around the UK, we found that (on average in the past two years), over 5,000 patients have visited each trust with Lobar Pneumonia – a serious infection known to fill the air sacs with pus and other liquids.
Additionally, in the same time frame, over 4,000 people were admitted per NHS trusts for sepsis treatment – with sepsis being life-threatening reaction to an infection, which causes damage to your body’s tissues and organs.
Our research also found that over 1,300 patients had been admitted per NHS trust due to trips and falls.
How many times have you fallen over in the last few years?
Costs of healthcare: UK vs USA
If you’re living in the USA, you won’t get the opportunity to be looked after by the NHS and you’ll have to fork out for your treatment from your own pocket. Sadly medical insurance isn’t something that everyone has, and even then most people who had medical insurance aren’t covered for everything.
Treatment costs in the USA are a lot more than private surgery costs here in the UK, with cancer-related treatments costing up to five times more in the USA than if you were being treated privately in the UK.
Check out the cost comparison below:
.jpg)
Looking at the costs that you’re expected to pay living in the USA, or even living in the UK and paying for private healthcare, is shocking to many of us, especially those who rely solely on the healthcare provided by the NHS.
If you ask us, it’s important to remember that, although NHS is experiencing delays largely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should all be thankful for the amazing National Health Service we have access to – and how tirelessly NHS employees work to provide the best care to us, every single day of the year.
