Comments on: US healthcare reform in turmoil

By: Kellen

Kellen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:50:15 +0000

I wish the NHS would sue. I get so sick of hearing about the “horrors” of socialized medicine in the U.K. and Canada. My retired mother was spewing this propaganda the other day about socialized medicine when I asked her what she thought Medicare was. She admits that this system works quite well for her. Yet is unwilling to provide it for others. How Republican of her.

By: Susanna

Susanna — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:28:22 +0000

I am so grateful for the NHS. I worked with an American who was half British, half American and she said that British people don’t understand that every time you visit your doctor in America, your health insurance premiums go up. She said it is like when you use the AA or the RAC – every time you call them out for help, your car insurance premiums go up.

When we are healthy we give doctors a very wide birth as nobody likes going to see doctors and being prescribed medicines.

My niece slipped in a pool of water last autumn and banged her head and was in a coma for days and had operations that cost at least £60,000 each time. We are all very grateful for the NHS. We are so fortunate in Britain. Why are we the lucky ones? I still don’t know. When you think that but for an accident of fate, we could all have been born in sub-Saharan Africa – why are we the lucky ones?

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:44:37 +0000

America will be so lucky when it finally does have universalized health care. Unfortunately it’s usually the idiots who are the loudest and most ridiculous and capable of the most astounding leaps of logic (really? death panels?), but it is changing. Obama has inspired many people in this country, and really, the change is palpable, in some places anyway. Obama and his supporters have 8 years of damage and anti-thinking (read, anti-intellectual elitism!!) to fix, so it might take a while.

I don’t know too much about the NHS, but talking to some UK friends, it seems awfully enviable to not have to worry about whether or not it’s financially convenient for you to become ill, be in some sort of accident, or, for some people, have to choose between eating or saving your sick kid’s life. In many cases, people can’t even qualify for health insurance if they have “preexisting conditions”–let alone whether or not they can even afford it. Oh, you’re already sick?–we’re sorry but we only insure healthy people.

And, no, individuality, personal responsibility, respect for one’s own life and the lives of others *are not* sacrificed when practicing compassion. Basic, human compassion…ooh scary socialism!

By: David B

David B — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:26:32 +0000

Dead right – I saw a piece on Newsnight yesterday, and it was amazing the amount of BS being talked about the NHS in America. ‘Death panels..?’ The answer to Palin (an entirely different sort of comedian to Michael) is of course ‘what about all those parents of children with Down’s, or a hundred other conditions, who CAN’T afford healthcare insurance?’ Spot the difference.

On issues like this, the gulf between the USA and Europe has never been wider. And amen to that, frankly

By: Hal

Hal — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:40:20 +0000

There do seem to be a significant number of members of the American Right who set out to prove every negative stereotype snarky Brits and Europeans might have about Americans being stupid correct. Only someone truly knuckleheaded could honestly believe that Obama intends to introduce ‘Death Panels’ to decide if members of society should be allowed to live or not, but Palin oddly appears to be playing to a genuine constituency.

Equally odd is exactly why the word ’socialist’ is regarded with such horror by some. Did your dinner companion not realise that the ruling party in this country is (allegedly) a socialist one?

By: Anne TA

Anne TA — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:39:30 +0000

I think the fear in most americans who are tax payers stem from some part ignorance and part factual knowledge about the limitations of universal health care including
— waiting list
—- prioritisng health care and rationalising who and what is entitled to what.
—-inequality despite universalization as a way to cost cut.
ie. Herceptin issue,
- universality taking away individual responsibility for one’s health in a nation where individual acheivements are rewarded and celebrated. Still no perfect system, each country has to work out what suits them.

By: Neuroskeptic

Neuroskeptic — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:32:23 +0000

Anne: What you’ve said sounds nice in theory but there is an “inconvenient truth” which is that Americans pay twice as much for their healthcare and yet they are significantly less healthy, on average, than British people.

If I offered to sell you a car for $5000 and someone else offered you a worse car for $10,000, and when I pointed that out he started calling me a socialist or whatever… wouldn’t you be a little skeptical?

By: Daisy

Daisy — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:53:41 +0000

I’ve consistantly had a brilliant service from the NHS. I have private cover but no reason to use it.

The US would be lucky to have what we have.

By: anne

anne — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:03:19 +0000

actually mental health nurse has me wrong, the NHS is not mediocre at all, i have more control over my career than my friends who work 90 hour week in the US, i have the flexibility and choices they dont have with a better work-life balance. im just saying there are pros and cons to it all. I love having universal health care and i continue to hope for its sustainability, but that if the americans choose otherwise. good for them dont push it. by the way, mental health nurse might want to check what socialist means in the dictionary and find that its actually something positive before brandishing it around like its a curse

By: Mental health nurse

Mental health nurse — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:28:19 +0000

Yes, I agree with anne. This is a biased article written with a socialist worldview. Think of all the bureaucracy and inefficiency you put up with in the NHS (often in the name and fairness), the lack of control you have over your career and life choices, and the high taxes that you pay – all in the name of promoting the mediocracy.