I am British, English if you want to be precise, and was born and bred in the UK. I am also a type 2 diabetic, and have been for over 2 years now.
I’m also 50 years old, and I suppose what you might call an “angry old man”!
Actually, that’s not really true, and I’m not all that grumpy, but I do get mad when I hear the British National Health Service being criticised. The rest of this article will refer to the National Health Service as the NHS.
Now I know there’s been a huge debate in the US, not to mention anger, at President Obama’s health reforms, and that’s none of my business, I’m not an American citizen.
However, I recall that during the debate, one of our politicians, whose name I forget, said “I wouldn’t wish the NHS on anyone”. I find that staggering. Let me tell you what happened to me.
I have always been physically active, both for work and leisure, but have also always been slightly overweight. In fact, about five years ago, I put on a couple of stone and was just over 16 stone in weight, but despite that, I felt pretty fit.
To cut a long story short, I started to suffer from fatigue, to the point where I thought I had narcolepsy, developed an incredible thirst to such an extent that I was drinking over 5 gallons of water a day. Stress and irritability also built up to intolerable levels. One morning, I woke up and could see colours, but no definition. I went to the doctor.
The doctor saw me the very same day. He performed various tests, including a urine and blood test.
He immediately put me on three types of oral medication, and gave me a blood sugar monitor and various paraphernalia to take away and keep. Sometime later, after regular weekly checkups, I had an appointment made with the specialist medical team at my local hospital, who later gave me an eye examination to check the back of the eye and optic nerve for signs of the degenerative disease, retinopathy.
Within 6 months, my blood sugars, although responding to the medication, were not coming down far enough, and I was put on insulin. I was given a very smart insulin pen injector, and attended 5 bi weekly meetings to check progress and learn how to use insulin correctly.
Everything is now under control, and I have a bi annual meeting with my diabetic team at hospital, plus an annual eye check.
The point is that this, together with all my ongoing medicines, is free.
OK, under the UK tax system, everyone pays what is called national insurance, calculated as 0% on earnings up to 105 pounds sterling per week, 11% up to 770 pounds per week and 1% on anything over 770 pounds per week.
So it’s a pittance.
Maybe you can see why I think that particular British politician is misguided.