A proper look at health care
I don't know if anybody watched Hannity last night, I imagine some of you have an allergic reaction to him, he was talking about what might happen if America adopts a socialized health care system. He called his programme "the socialized nightmare" I want to try and take a proper look at the issue bearing in mind I live in a country who's system still resembles the old school socialist health system.
I never heard him once mention any advantage to the system. After all if there weren't any we wouldn't have put up with it for 61 years. Under most circumstances treatment is free at the point of need, so no matter how poor you are you can still be seen by a doctor and it won't cost you a penny. There will be no expense spared whatsoever in order to save your life (if you're in a critical accident for example) Well these are the only pros I can think of off the top of my head - they are quite big things though seeing as there's a alot of people who simply can't afford to go private.
Here are the downsides: the health service is run from general taxation, this does mean there are alot of hidden taxes that most people wouldn't look at, our income tax levels are similar to the US but our other taxes are waaay sky high. Our sales tax, once this reduced period comes to an end, will be back up at 17.5% fuel duty is 54% all these contribute to the NHS budget. This pices ordinary people completely out of the private healthcare range. If you have a serious illness there's an unelected government bureaucracy called N.I.C.E the national institute for clinical excellence. They have the power to decide if the government can afford the treatment you need: there are women who have been denied treatment for breast cancer and died as a result of the judgements taken by NICE.
Another feature of the British healthcare system is waiting (vicki gave a rye laugh there, she knows what im talking about) Remember you are the only cost variable in the system, docs often have to work stupid long hours just to see everybody and everybody who works in the NHS still has to get paid so this inevitably leads to long queues. Its nothing unusual to wait months and if you have a very good doctors surgery you might only have to wait a few days. This is of course rank, especially if you think you have a serious condition, this doesn't matter to the government you wait your turn like everybody else. My uncles health conditions would have been diagnosed months ago if he didnt have to wait. Even once you've been diagnosed you still have to wait for treatment.
British hospitals are notorious for terrible hygiene. Even though 1.4 million people work for the British health care system alot of it is middle management. Often there are not enough cleaners to clean the whole hosptial effeciently. When I was in the hosptial with my gran a few weeks ago there was a man bleeding all over the floor. It got cleaned up but it did start streaking the blood everywhere. It's no wonder we have the term in British "hospital aquired infections" you go in with condition A and come out or die with condition B caught in the hospital, usually MRSA which can kill you - you could stop MRSA if the hospital was clean that's all it needs. But the poor workers don't often have time to even wash their hands.
Remember when I said it was free at the point of need? There are some things you still have to pay for. For example dentist treatment or glasses. It doesn't matter how much resources you throw at a government healthcare system it always needs more. The Labour party have doubled investment in the last 10yrs and this has brought down *some* waiting lists and made very little difference to anything else.
Britain has some pretty shocking healthcare statistics, especially Scotland, we're the european capital for things like liver disease, heart disease, alcohol related deaths, stabbing related injuries..I could go on and on...these, in a government healthcare system, need to be taken care of. But this of course isn't always the case: if you're fat some local health trusts will refuse to give you a new hip. If you're a smoker some health trusts will refuse a heart translape. After all you're wasting government money. In some ways I can see the government's point on these things, the abuse in the system is shocking. My uncle was recently told to stop smoking because of his illnesses, our health trust isnt covered by the law above so they would end up treating him anyway. He refuses to stop smoking. He said yesterday "its my healthcare system I can abuse it if I want" trouble is he hasn't paid taxes for years because he hasn't worked for years, the amount of people who know they can do whatever they like to their body knowing full well they'll be treated for free. It's a national embarrassment. Those people take up valuable resources.
Lastly I want to tell you about an ongoing case. This is a pregnant woman in Scotland who is suffering complications because of swine flu. She had a severe reaction which meant her lungs were failing so the hospital has to oxidise her blood. There is only ONE specialist unit in the UK where this is possible and it only has FIVE beds. The hospital went on a frantic european search for a place so she ended up being taken to Sweeden. This is being hailed as a great european success, I say if you only have one specialised unit with 5 beds then it's a national embarrassment.
So on reflection as you can see I'm against the NHS on the whole. I can see it's benefits but if I were you my American friends I'd rise up against Obama's plan right now. Yes your healthcare system needs to be monitored in some way to make sure you're not being ripped off but socialised healthcare is not the answer.
I never heard him once mention any advantage to the system. After all if there weren't any we wouldn't have put up with it for 61 years. Under most circumstances treatment is free at the point of need, so no matter how poor you are you can still be seen by a doctor and it won't cost you a penny. There will be no expense spared whatsoever in order to save your life (if you're in a critical accident for example) Well these are the only pros I can think of off the top of my head - they are quite big things though seeing as there's a alot of people who simply can't afford to go private.
Here are the downsides: the health service is run from general taxation, this does mean there are alot of hidden taxes that most people wouldn't look at, our income tax levels are similar to the US but our other taxes are waaay sky high. Our sales tax, once this reduced period comes to an end, will be back up at 17.5% fuel duty is 54% all these contribute to the NHS budget. This pices ordinary people completely out of the private healthcare range. If you have a serious illness there's an unelected government bureaucracy called N.I.C.E the national institute for clinical excellence. They have the power to decide if the government can afford the treatment you need: there are women who have been denied treatment for breast cancer and died as a result of the judgements taken by NICE.
Another feature of the British healthcare system is waiting (vicki gave a rye laugh there, she knows what im talking about) Remember you are the only cost variable in the system, docs often have to work stupid long hours just to see everybody and everybody who works in the NHS still has to get paid so this inevitably leads to long queues. Its nothing unusual to wait months and if you have a very good doctors surgery you might only have to wait a few days. This is of course rank, especially if you think you have a serious condition, this doesn't matter to the government you wait your turn like everybody else. My uncles health conditions would have been diagnosed months ago if he didnt have to wait. Even once you've been diagnosed you still have to wait for treatment.
British hospitals are notorious for terrible hygiene. Even though 1.4 million people work for the British health care system alot of it is middle management. Often there are not enough cleaners to clean the whole hosptial effeciently. When I was in the hosptial with my gran a few weeks ago there was a man bleeding all over the floor. It got cleaned up but it did start streaking the blood everywhere. It's no wonder we have the term in British "hospital aquired infections" you go in with condition A and come out or die with condition B caught in the hospital, usually MRSA which can kill you - you could stop MRSA if the hospital was clean that's all it needs. But the poor workers don't often have time to even wash their hands.
Remember when I said it was free at the point of need? There are some things you still have to pay for. For example dentist treatment or glasses. It doesn't matter how much resources you throw at a government healthcare system it always needs more. The Labour party have doubled investment in the last 10yrs and this has brought down *some* waiting lists and made very little difference to anything else.
Britain has some pretty shocking healthcare statistics, especially Scotland, we're the european capital for things like liver disease, heart disease, alcohol related deaths, stabbing related injuries..I could go on and on...these, in a government healthcare system, need to be taken care of. But this of course isn't always the case: if you're fat some local health trusts will refuse to give you a new hip. If you're a smoker some health trusts will refuse a heart translape. After all you're wasting government money. In some ways I can see the government's point on these things, the abuse in the system is shocking. My uncle was recently told to stop smoking because of his illnesses, our health trust isnt covered by the law above so they would end up treating him anyway. He refuses to stop smoking. He said yesterday "its my healthcare system I can abuse it if I want" trouble is he hasn't paid taxes for years because he hasn't worked for years, the amount of people who know they can do whatever they like to their body knowing full well they'll be treated for free. It's a national embarrassment. Those people take up valuable resources.
Lastly I want to tell you about an ongoing case. This is a pregnant woman in Scotland who is suffering complications because of swine flu. She had a severe reaction which meant her lungs were failing so the hospital has to oxidise her blood. There is only ONE specialist unit in the UK where this is possible and it only has FIVE beds. The hospital went on a frantic european search for a place so she ended up being taken to Sweeden. This is being hailed as a great european success, I say if you only have one specialised unit with 5 beds then it's a national embarrassment.
So on reflection as you can see I'm against the NHS on the whole. I can see it's benefits but if I were you my American friends I'd rise up against Obama's plan right now. Yes your healthcare system needs to be monitored in some way to make sure you're not being ripped off but socialised healthcare is not the answer.