know we are straying, but what does the healthcare system NOT cover in the UK?
Dentistry and opticians are not covered for most working age adults. There is a tax on drugs of about £10 per prescription, but not in Scotland.
If I were to get properly bent on a boat in the channel I would be picked up by a helicopter (if appropriate), flown to a chamber, treated (and fed) for free. If I needed treatment so as to learn to walk again etc that would happen for free.
If I suffered from a nasty rash (not DCS) and got doctor prescribed a tube of creme costing £3 in Boots I would still have to pay £10 for it. If they prescribed some super expensive course of drugs at say £100k/year I would pay £10 each time I went to collect them, so maybe £120 or £40 depending.
People do have health insurance, almost exclusively provided as an employment benefit. The premium is a taxable benefit and seems to be about £1800/year. I guess working people are a good bet.
There is a parasitic relationship between the private health industry and the NHS. The NHS trains (or imports) doctors, nurses and specialists of all sorts, many end up working for private providers. If you see a consultant paid for by an insurance company it is almost certain he actually works in a local NHS hospital. I was sent by such a consultant to see a physio who then worked for a sports injury specialist but had trained and been employed by the NHS.
There are private hospitals. There is a smallish one local to me and I took my son there recently when he had possibly broken his wrist. It cost about £250 for a visit and saved a lot of driving about/taking the bus and waiting at the proper hospital. Although apparently a cost, I was ahead on the deal vs losing half a day of work.
For 40 years though the political direction of the U.K. has been to (pretend to) reduce taxes. The basic rate of income tax was 33% when I started working, higher rate was 60%. Now it 20% and 40%. The 2007/8 financial crash caused a huge drop in tax take in the U.K. and so a big increase in the deficit. The election of a government that is ideologically inclined to low taxes has meant that there is an unprecedented squeeze on government budgets.
The move to spending money with mega corporations who are not paying any UK tax is also a problem.
The NHS budget is under serious pressure and the component organisations are are risk of going bust. Thus the NHS is becoming less effective.
I believe though, that the cost, to the government, per head of population of healthcare in the U.K. is actually lower than that cost in the USA.