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[Afro Droid]

HI-larious...

'Evil and Orwellian' – America's right turns its fire on NHS | World news | The Guardian

[Lucky Rathen]

That's ludicrous. The NHS may not be perfect but it's a fuck of a lot better than America's system where only the rich folk can afford treatment and medicine. See that film Sicko where the woman gets inhalers from Cuba for $5, and she's been paying $100 for them in states cos they're sold by a privately owned company. Crazy, makes me never want to live in America.

[jon]

Bloody hell. Eejits.

[Chris]

It's insane the stuff they're saying over there:

Stephen Hawking both British and not dead • The Register

If they don't want a fair health system then fine, that's their fucked up choice. But lying about ours isn't going to help matters.

[Le Stu]

Oh dear. You'd have thought they would point out our MRSA infection rates or relatively low cancer survival rates but I suppose that just isn't 'truthy' enough for them.

I thought I'd gone crazy when I read the Telegraph defending the NHS yesterday.

[Le Stu]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

That's ludicrous. The NHS may not be perfect but it's a fuck of a lot better than America's system where only the rich folk can afford treatment and medicine. See that film Sicko where the woman gets inhalers from Cuba for $5, and she's been paying $100 for them in states cos they're sold by a privately owned company. Crazy, makes me never want to live in America.

The problem there is that private companies can price gouge consumers because they set the prices insurance companies have to pay and the uninsured are forced to pay the same. It didn't use to be that way but, these days, US healthcare insurance has very broad coverage, typically with a low deductible, meaning you pretty much charge everything on your insurance, including routine checkups which really shouldn't be covered by a risk-based system. This drives competition down and premiums sky high.

The reason for this is the tax code. Your healthcare insurance contributions come out of your pay check pre-tax, so naturally the incentive is to lump as much onto your insurance as possible. I even had a pre paid credit card charged up out of my net pay when I was over there. So, there's a lot they could do to fix the system without social healthcare, although I still think some form of government backed compulsory insurance scheme is ultimately necessary to deal with pre-existing conditions which should be uninsurable.

Compare the NHS to the French system though, and you'll realise we're getting a pretty bad deal ourselves.

[Shaki]

Originally Posted by Chris

It's insane the stuff they're saying over there:

Stephen Hawking both British and not dead • The Register

If they don't want a fair health system then fine, that's their fucked up choice. But lying about ours isn't going to help matters.

That is rather hilarious but also fucking scary at the same time. IBD has a circulation of over 210,000 and misinformation of this magnitude which will be absorbed by all who are of a disposition to believe it. They're response is quite hilarious when Hawking's Britishness is pointed out:

IBD still milking Hawking example, still coming up dry | Jay Bookman

[jon]

I'm amazed that they still tried for the moral high ground despite being completely...well, I believe the term the kids use is "pwnd". Possibly not though, I can't keep up with the kids these days. Epic fail etc.

[I'm Your God Now]

Ridiculous propaganda at it's best.

Just waiting for the "Britain supports Communism!".

[Dave]

Taking the left-wing falsehoods, half truths, and unattributed speculation the Guardian regularly uses to attack their opponents when they run out of cogent arguments out of the equation, what have we got? A story that is simply about Obama's political opponents, not to mention the majority of the people he represents, not wanting to use the NHS as a model for US healthcare provision. That seems like an eminently sensible view to me, given that the NHS is too expensive for what it is, riddled with beaureacracy, poorly managed and unable to provide services effectively and in a timely fashion in a great number of cases. Is that not a fair view? Would anyone who has ever worked in the NHS, or used their services challenge any of those statements?

There's no such thing as free healthcare, and what many americans have realised is that Obama's plan will mean that they will not only have to pay for it with their tax dollars, but also at the point of service when the "free" care they have been promised fails to materialise due to poor management at government level and through lack of funding. Of course there should be free medical care for those who most need it or can't afford insurance, but those that can should make their own provision. That's just good common sense, as the story of the NHS, and every other socialised medical plan around, is that the government will invariably let you down.