I will make a rare foray into American politics to highlight something that has suddenly involved Britain.
As most people in America are aware, we’re fighting to reform our health care system, which is a mess. I won’t get into the politics of it here as this is not a place for it (if you want my opinion, we need our own NHS but it will never happen).
Anyway, the far right has been dredging up rumors and scare tactics to try and stall any real reform and one of the common talking points they use is to criticize the British National Health Service.
Now, for those that aren’t familiar with the NHS, the UK has a cradle to the grave healthcare system. It’s free at the point of use and is a fundamental right. There’s never an issue of paying a medical bill, it’s all funded by taxes. So, if you were to get cancer, you wouldn’t have to sell your house and cash your life savings to pay for treatment to live. Or if you got into a car accident, you wouldn’t have to worry about how much the ambulance ride will cost – or if the insurance company will cover it. I could go on.
Here’s a informative little video from Michael Moore’s Sicko about the NHS:
Here’s another Video where he interviews an NHS Doctor:
The NHS is run directly by the government and is actually one of the biggest employers in the world. They provide great healthcare to everyone at a much lower cost compared to the USA.
Just don’t say that to the American right. Well, sick of AMERICAN Republican blathering about the state of the BRITISH healthcare system, Brits are standing up and defending something they never thought they’d have to defend.
From the Telegraph Today:
Experts within the NHS condemned the allegations made in speeches and television adverts as half-truths and distortions.
“The NHS does a damn fine job,” said Dr Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health. “These claims are complete and utter rubbish.
“The horrific thing about the American system is that there are tens of millions of people without health insurance.
In addition to that, Downing Street got involved along with the citizens of Britain and spontaneously a #WeLoveTheNHS campaign made the rounds on Twitter.
Thousands of Brits all over the country gave a reason why they love and support the NHS, which many admit is not perfect and never will be. Not only that, for awhile it was the top trending topic on Twitter, pushing the Miley Stripper Pole debacle off the top (thank god!). Even Stephen Hawking chimed in when some claimed that he would be dead because of the NHS.
So, to any American conservatives who are trying to use the NHS as a talking point of evil socialism gone bad, you should read this article from the Guardian refuting most of your talking posts with actual facts.
Is public healthcare in the UK as sick as rightwing America claims?
All I gotta say is Go Britain. Don’t listen to American whining about YOUR healthcare system. You’re the lucky ones with a national health care system after all. As an American you have my permission to be quite smug about it.
What Do you Think?
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.
Although I agree with what you say, I wish you could have found a more reliable and credible source than Michael Moore to back up this argument.
Wonderful post! The links to Hawking’s response and the article went straight to my facebook!
Hi, the NHS is like a member of the family, as a rule we love it but yes, there’s many a time we’ll have a (usually small) gripe.
But boy, when somebody else picks on it, we get very cross indeed, the Stephen Hawking’s article really hurt, it was a step too far.
I do hope you improve your system, there is something very civilising knowing that nobody needs to fear the cost of healthcare.
As someone who grew up in the States and has been living in the UK for five years, I can say that the NHS is perfectly fine & I’ve had only good experiences. No paying for visits, no excesses, etc. When I had to have surgery in the US, I did have insurance, but the excesses I had to pay put me into debt anyway. Here, I had quite a bit of testing done…and paid nothing. Birth control…paid nothing. And you CAN get private insurance as well (we get it through work) which helps with the waiting times for things (really the only reason to use private insurance). I love the fact that no one has to go without a doctor or worry about going into debt here.
Mrs UK Yankee, I feel the same way. My American friends ask me all the time if I will move back to the US after my husband retires from the Navy (in 3 years) and I don’t hesitate to tell them no. The primary reason is that healthcare was a nightmare for me. Even with insurance provided by my employer the hospitals and insurance companies must just sit around dreaming up charges to add to your bill. Sure, the procedure might be covered but the handling and lab fees are hundreds of dollars for that procedure that is supposedly covered.
The reason the NHS works is because the primary goal is to keep people healthy. The primary goal of insurance companies is to pay as little as possible and make money. That is why the US healthcare system is such a mess.
I will never go back to that, and I am surely not going to have children born into that system and I personally think its going to take decades to fix healthcare in America. The Right always like to rant and rave that Brits pay such high taxes to fund their healthcare but the taxes we pay are NOTHING compared to medical bills, even for the insured, in the US.
::steps off soap box::
If my local NHS hospital is good enough for this lady….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/madonna-suffers-broken-bones-in-fall-from-horse-at-country-estate-503225.html
Whilst I understand some people having reservations about the claims of Michael Moore – everything he claims is correct.
As a British resident (born and bred) of 40 years the NHS is a shining jewel in the crown of this country, as are nearly all those that work in it.
Seldom do you realise how fortunate you are until you read of the problems faced by many Americans in meeting the basic needs of securing their health. Hertzberg had a theory, from basics such as survival all the way through ambition and self realisation. To think that one of the fundamentals of human survival, that of being cared for under a health system, is not a basic given of any resident of a modern state – well it doesn’t quite back up the caring for its people ethic that the US government might claim, does it?
British people live without ever giving the NHS a second thought. It is just there. Like the rain. You know it is going to rain and you don’t give it a second thought. Its England, thats what it does. Its the NHS, it looks after you for absolutely no charge at all, no matter what is wrong with you, why it is wrong with you or what you have done or who you are or how old you are – thats what it does.
Introduce a truly state funded health system in the United States and put aside all reservations. Then look back in 50 years and be one of the people who can claim to have backed a revolutionary system that will be viewed as essential and taken for granted. You’ll feel very proud.
My dad’s a doc for the NHS, and (even though we don’t earn as much as a GP) what that Moore guy claimed was correct.
It isn’t a perfect system, but without it life would be terrible.
And they’ll do anything for free, eg. i had a *slightly* nasal voice, so I went down to the doctors, and I got free medicine, followed up eventually by surgery, pro bono publico.
Having spent the last 10 years in England, I will never go back to live in America, simply because of their health care system. I pay my national insurance tax every month like every other good tax paying citizen and I am not in debt with doctor bills. However, I am now in debt for $1,228.00 to a hospital in America. When visiting my family in April this year (2010), upon my leaving date, I was delayed an extra week because of the ash cloud and at the same time, I had to go to the ER to get medical treatment. The hospital did not waste any time in getting my UK address to send me the bill (which arrived today 4th Oct 2010). Basically, a trip to the ER, a ‘Therapeutic Injection’ and two vials of antibiotics equates to over $1k. It is outrageous! It really angers me when Americans talk so bad about the NHS and some of them probably have never experienced living here. I must say that I have never had any bad experiences with the NHS. I personally don’t know how I can pay that bill when I just are not used to paying for any medical treatment. America might be the land of the free and the home of the brave, but those who cannot afford health care are up the creek without a paddle. And they simply shouldn’t be!
I find it pretty bizzar that anyone would say that regarding Stephen Hawking and the NHS considering he lives in the UK! I expect the idiot who said it thinks he is American.