The NHS is under attack. And this time it’s from Americans of all people.
As President Obama pushes a head with healthcare reform in the US, the right wing backlash is getting into full swing. And the NHS is being cited as example of just how bad things could be in a hideous socialist vision.
Last week, the most senior Republican on the Senate finance committee, Chuck Grassley, said his ailing Democratic colleague, Edward Kennedy, would be left to die untreated from a brain tumour in Britain.
“I don’t know for sure,” said Grassley. “But I’ve heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy with a brain tumour, being 77 years old as opposed to being 37 years old, if he were in England, would not be treated for his disease, because…when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems.”
Well, I don’t know for sure, but I’m pretty sure Senator Grassley is a bigoted idiot. I find this deeply offensive.
Who does he think he is casting aspersions about a health care system, which was created to provide universal coverage and to be free at the point of delivery? Albeit we’ve been messed around lately with creeping privatisation and irritating targets, but the NHS I know continues to treat individual patients as individuals, is not ageist, and provides a considerably better service than most Americans receive.
It’s got to be a better system than one in which millions of people can’t afford the insurance that gives them access to healthcare - don’t they get why the president is trying to reform it!?
The republicans would be comical if the sight of uninsured Americans forming huge queues outside one of the few free healthcare clinics wasn’t so sad. I hope President Obama delivers on his promise.
Join the response on Twitter.
Tags: US healthcare
Moaning about the NHS is a favourite blood sport in the UK but it blinds us to the really excellent aspects of our service. We do some things (eg screening) far better than the US and as for the claims that they have better outcomes for such conditions as cancer I simply do not believe their figures.
I also have been getting VERY cross about the way the NHS is being portrayed by the Republicans, but then listening to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show helps put things in perspective.
When I don’t know for sure what I am talking about I hope I know enough to keep my stupid mouth shut. It seems that different rules apply in the US Senate. For all its faults the NHS is worth defending and it upsets me to see UK doctors sometimes providing knocking copy to American lobby groups representing massive financial vested interests.
I have always suggested that we need some ‘evidence-based’ mangement and politics in our NHS. Maybe US senators should base their comments on our NHS on firm evidence rather than on biased, uninformed opinion, about which he is “not sure”. Has he ever been here to see it in action? His ’supposition’ about Ted Kennedy is totally unfounded; and I wonder (now I’m at it!) how a 77-year old American without insurance would have fared in his great USA?
I’ve been quite inspired by the Twitter response. It’s been massive. Makes you forget some of the crap, and realise a lot of people do appreciate what we do.
Don’t think we should be too rose tinted. While I don’t like the Republican response, I’m not sure anyone should be modelling a new system on us. Still plenty of waiting lists to go round, and not enough continuity of care…
Like Clinton before him, I think Obama is only now starting to realise the enormity of the challenge to reforming healthcare in the US and the strength of the right wing/free market lobby. There’s a lot of powerful people who benefit from restricted access. I wish him luck - he needs it.
I wish him luck too. Actually, I had an American junior a couple of years ago (EU trained though oddly) and he was obsessed with that Michael Moore film about how fantastic we were, and Cuba too I seem to remember, though I suppose mentioning the Nash and Cuba in the same sentence might just give the right wingers more ammunition…
We have to face the reality that the NHS is not the envy of the world. Whilst there may be pockets of excellence, overall it’s mediocre. Check out the Consumer Powerhouse reports that rank European health services: the UK is 13 out of 29. None of the top ten contain tax-funded systems. The best are insurance-based. As it puts it, ‘Bismarck beats Beveridge every time’!