One for NHS Workers.

[dry suit diver]

have been following this since it kicked off, and have been in some heated exchenges with some dumbas yanks on a jeep forum.

in the states they equate socialism to communism- not that far apart in reality but one and the same to the yanks.

most of those opposed to it can't quite understand that there are 43 million people who cannot get anything other than "emergency Care" for life threatening situations as they cannot afford or are wofully under insured.

for me I could pay for BUPA etc , but I don't need to, the NHS has cared for me and my family and never let me down it was NHS staff that brought my children into the world and NHS staff that fixed me when I smashed myself up in a car, the same NHS who mended my dads back. cared for my mum when she was first diagnosed with alzheimers. the same NHS who provided the care for my Father in Law wen he was diagnosed with a Brain tumour. the Same NHS that has just replaced the hip of my Mother in Law.


long live the NHS, and screw the stupid Yanks who can't se what it is and what it stands for.


oh and as an aside , this country was just like the states for healthcare until Nye Bevan created the NHS

[Wet & Broke]

I think the republicans are so scared of any reform that has even a feint sniff of words like social because they believe it will turn them all into communists they don't give themselves time to think that what's being proposed by Obama may have a fantastically beneficial effect upon millions of poorer Americans. As a psychiatric nurse I know that if one of my patients who was born in the US returned to the country of his birth he would not get the medication and the follow-up he does now. The unfortunate part of this is the power in the US seems to follow the money and therefore the poor who desparately need this reform do not get much of a say.
I for one hope Obama wins this one and the republicans like Sarah Palin suddenly remember how in the 50's & 60's they actively supported eugenics among other Nazi principals.
Rant over

[chrisch]

....
for me I could pay for BUPA etc , but I don't need to, the NHS has cared for me and my family ....

A friend has BUPA from work (free) and also pays into Pru Health from his own money.

A recent event saw him with Pulmonary Oedema from multiple Thrombosis and about as close to death as a 40 year old should ever be, given he is a fit person with a good diet and otherwise in excellent health.

Needless to say all his treatment was on the NHS.

Private healthcare is utter shit and paying into any scheme is just stupid. Yes, you might get a nice bed and a colour telly but when you really need treatment they can't do it.

The yanks are scared that poor people might actually get decent treatment instead of dying. Illegal immigrants might get treatment (like they do in yurrup) instead of dying. They might have to pay tax to help people they loathe.

There are Nazis in the US for sure, but the current President is not one of them.

Chris

[NotDeadYet]

I did love the woman on R4 news the other day.

"They are trying to turn us into a socialist state like... like... er... like... Russia".

Yep, those well known socialists Putin and Medvedev...

[BJ]

It's all about money and the political lobby of the massive pharmaecutical industry. They are scared stiff thata Nationalised health service would see the end of the gravy train (when of course we know that the NHS is still screwed for the cost of drugs).
I bought a course of antibiotics (prescribed by a British doctor) in Manado for US$4. When I asked a friend who works at SKB why they are so expensive here, she said that we've got more money!
As for serious healthcare, my first wife died from a brain tumour. It's amazing how fast the Insurance companies back a away when it's something serious.

[Bantam]

My understanding was that although he is british, he has US residency or citizenship or something.

He has dual nationality but I know for a fact he lives in Cambridge.

(My Aunt used to have to visit him when she worked for the council.)

As it happens, my other half works for the NHS. They may be under-funded and bureaucratic, but that comes mainly from the top level (Department of Health) wanting to change things on a whim from a minister who wants to look good. Agenda for Change is a good example of a way to spend money without having any major benefits and upsetting your staff in one foul swoop. And the constant merging / demerging of Ambulance services so they can meet the ORCON standards. Alan Millburn was the worst thing to happen to the NHS ever.

Sometimes I think the ministers shouldn't have control over the NHS as most of the waste is caused by politics

The people on the front line work their butts off and do a fantastic job.

[cazyoung]

Having worked as a radiographer in a major hospital in Iowa (mid-west USA) it was horrific to see how ill people had to be before they got treatment. The uninsured could eventually get treatment via various state (as in the state of Iowa) funded schemes and the the medicare/medicaid system. However it was usually "damage limitation" treatment rather than curative treatment.

Healthcare for insured people in the USA is not always that great having also been on the recieving end!! When living in Boston a few years later I became acutely unwell, we had to wait 45 mins while the insurance company decided which hospital I was to go to. On arrival at hospital I was left slumped in a wheelchair until I more or less collapsed when I was put on an gurney (trolley) where I was to remain for some 14 hrs. I was sent for a huge battery of investigations during that time. I recieved no pain killers and it was only after some 4hrs that a drip was put up when blood test results came back. The doctors would not listen to me or my husband (a doctor who was working in a different hospital) I was just a problem patient.

The reason I felt so awful was a large internal bleed (about 2 litres) which had stopped while all the faffing about went on. I was lucky I could easily have died while lying in a centre of excellence with facilities that the NHS have to beg for!!

Health insurance in USA is huge business and is very very powerful so I do hope Obama suceeds - the poor of USA deserve it.

[Scuba Diva]

FFS - tell me they do not think Stephen hawking is American simply because his computer transplator voice has an american accent!

I was talking to a north american friend to day and I can sadly report that this is apparently the case.

(Walks off shaking head. )

[Lazlo]

Charlie Brooker on Channel 4 last night makes a passing reference to Tory MEP and rent-a-cnut Daniel Hannan. (The language will no doubt offend some.)

YouTube - Charlie Brooker on Daniel Hannan

For a (much) more detailed take-down of how deluded this man is see this.

The appearance of Hannan on the far-right Fox News channel sparked a twitter backlash, led by Graham Linehan (creator of Father Ted) and others.

Elsewhere the coverage in the US is beyond belief:

Apparently, universal health care is a terrorist recruitment tool.

YouTube - Cavuto: Universal healthcare is terrorist recruitment tool

Sarah Palin on "Death Panels" (BJ take note - this is what proper journalists call a source):

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care."

The Hawking quote originally appeared here, and before it was corrected, it read:

"“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless”."

Anybody interested in why all this is so interesting might like to go here. Money quote:

"For a direct comparison, that means that in England the government spends around $3,200 per capita on healthcare and covers the entire population whereas in the US the federal government spends around $3,700 per capita and yet covers less than a third of the population.

...

Yep, that’s right capitalism fans – the US free market system for healthcare provision is significantly less efficient than a “socialised” one."

[Paulus]

"For a direct comparison, that means that in England the government spends around $3,200 per capita on healthcare and covers the entire population whereas in the US the federal government spends around $3,700 per capita and yet covers less than a third of the population.

...

Yep, that’s right capitalism fans – the US free market system for healthcare provision is significantly less efficient than a “socialised” one."

I'll be honest and say that even if I knew what it was all about I could never have an opinion that was "right" so I won't offer one.
But.... My simplistic analysis of the above statistic is that perhaps the less than one third of the US population that gets the benfit of a $3,700 health care budget receive a rather higher standard of health care than we do. Just a guess.....
I can only back up that oppinion with reference to my and my families experiences of UK health care

I would agree with anyone who said that the NHS does not offer particularly good value for money.

Oh bugger, does that count a giving an opinion?

Paul