the septics attacking the NHS

[PM-Junkie]

Apparently the NHS is "evil"?

....and if Sarah Palin and her ilk so think, doesn't that by definition make the NHS a national treasure?

[Bagpuss]

45 million to 70 million Americans have no health insurance.
Last year, 18,000 Americans died because they’re not insured, and 1 million American families went bankrupt from medical bills.

[TiroFijo]

45 million to 70 million Americans have no health insurance.
Last year, 18,000 Americans died because they’re not insured, and 1 million American families went bankrupt from medical bills.

Exactly! It was one of the few reasons that I didn't really want to live the rest of my life there. You are ok (well even then the insurance companies will try not to pay for treatment) if you can afford to pay for it or that you have a good job that offers it as part of the package. If you lose your job (and a lot of people have) then there goes your health cover. It's the biggest cause of bankruptsy there. So you are ok if you are well off enough to afford it otherwise you can f#ck off.

The NHS isn't perfect but I would much rather have it than what they have (or don't have).

[DimPrawn]

... doesn't that by definition make the NHS a national treasure?

Yes, it should be buried.

[TimberWolf]

An NHS is necessary to stop excessive wages in the health service. Unfortunately recent pay awards to NHS staff, e.g. GPs, may have paved the way for an American style system because we simply won't be able to afford it. Shame on those that support excessive wages for doctors.

[DimPrawn]

An NHS is necessary to stop excessive wages in the health service. Unfortunately recent pay awards to NHS staff, e.g. GPs, may have paved the way for an American style system because we simply won't be able to afford it. Shame on those that support excessive wages for doctors.

Hear hear!

[Moscow Mule]

Health insurance is fine, so long as the company you buy it from is honest. I read earlier today of a woman who had payment for her breast cancer treatment withheld because she failed to disclose dermatitis as a pre-existing condition. By the time she'd argued against the ruling the cancer had become in-operable.

The NHS isn't perfect, but it's better than that.

[OwlHoot]

An NHS is necessary to stop excessive wages in the health service. Unfortunately recent pay awards to NHS staff, e.g. GPs, may have paved the way for an American style system because we simply won't be able to afford it. Shame on those that support excessive wages for doctors.

Won't trying to artificially limit GPs' and nurses' salaries mean they just shoot off to the US, leaving us with shortages which would have to be filled by yet more immigration and contract staff which would work out even more expensive.

Also, limits on their salaries makes medicine a less attractive career for students, leading to even more shortages. Why do you think so few British students study science in this country? Because scientists and engineers here are paid like serfs.

[OwlHoot]

Apparently the NHS is "evil"?

....and if Sarah Palin and her ilk so think, doesn't that by definition make the NHS a national treasure?

The NHS *is* evil in a sense - When the State is obliged to pay for peoples' health, the Government has a strong incentive to meddle in other aspects of peoples' lifestyles, and foster a busibody interventionist attitude that extends beyond health. It's like pulling the wool out of a jumper - Where do you stop?

The NHS is a modern day equivalent of the medievil church, a huge bureaucracy gobbling up revenues and talent which could be better used in other ways. It needs some new Henry VIII to come along with the balls and determination to flog the lot, and damn the squeals of the brainwashed gullible public and self-interested parties dragged away from their troughs

[TimberWolf]

Won't trying to artificially limit GPs' and nurses' salaries mean they just shoot off to the US, leaving us with shortages which would have to be filled by yet more immigration and contract staff which would work out even more expensive.

Also, limits on their salaries makes medicine a less attractive career for students, leading to even more shortages. Why do you think so few British students study science in this country? Because scientists and engineers here are paid like serfs.

Scientists are paid poorly here, but doctors aren't surely. I don't think there's any way we could compete with American wages without it bankrupting us, or us following a similar policy of e.g. excluding the poor. I think the NHS is pretty much doomed here now anyway.