Hand in hand

I have been visiting my daughter who is living in the USA whilst her husband is on a military posting there. My kids treated me to a manicure for mothers' day. So on a sunny Sunday morning I found myself sitting in a salon in a casino hotel in Vegas listening to my beautician tell me about her life. She works 60 hours a week doing 2 part time jobs. She used to have a full time job and “benefits” –which I quickly discovered meant health insurance-but the recession meant her hours and  her benefits got cut and she had to take on a second job. 2 part time jobs = no health insurance. She saves each month so she can afford to have routine screening by her GP but was scared about developing a long term illness like heart disease or diabetes or, worse, something life-threatening like cancer. She is my age, has worked hard all her life  and her son is in the US Airforce. She is one of millions of people in the USA who are frightened about getting sick because it would mean financial ruin and possibly premature death. It made me realise that we are so lucky in this country to have such a great health service that is free to everyone when you need it. And yes it isn’t perfect, and we need to work to make it better, but it is still the envy of the world.

In our locality issues around the future provision of paediatrics and maternity in our local hospital have united a community: People talking and working together to try to make the best of something they hold dear. In the USA health care divides people into the “haves” and the “have nots” based on the ability to pay. In the USA there would be no community group working in their own time to reflect the views of local people, no GPs and consultants keen to come out into the community and talk about the issues.  Decisions in the USA would be made by insurance companies and hospitals driven only by profit, with no sense of public service.

I left the salon with lovely bright red nails, and a renewed commitment to the service where I have worked for 25 years and am proud be part of. The solutions to our problems may not be easy to find but at least as a community we can struggle to find them together.