Reverse Culture Shock

Though it wasn’t the type of book I usually go for, I enjoyed it. And one of the best parts was that the author questioned the US healthcare system — at least indirectly.

She suggests that an uninsured woman did not get optimal care in a private hospital. While the National Health Service in the UK, where I lived for eight years, wasn’t perfect, it didn’t discriminate. Both rich and poor people had stories to tell about how the NHS had let them down.

One friend told me how her father’s lung collapsed when a nurse failed to check on him during a hospital stay. Another recounted how a doctor tried to remove glass from her sister’s arm, without anesthesia. One told me about the bloody curtain that divided her from one of the six other pregnant women in the labor ward.

There is something comforting about treatment being the same no matter what your economic background.