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View Full Version : British fear 'American-style' healthcare system


Capt Bringdown
06-13-2011, 06:23 PM
As leaders debate ways to reform healthcare, politicians repeatedly tell a worried public that Britain will not turn the National Health Service into an 'American-style' private system. (http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fg-britain-health-care-20110613,0,1237142.story)

Britain is now embroiled in a healthcare argument of its own, prompted by a proposed shake-up of the NHS. And the phrase on everyone's lips is "American-style," which may not be as catchy as the "death panels" that Palin attributed to socialized medicine but which, over here, inspires pretty much the same kind of terror.

For a people accustomed to free healthcare for all, regardless of income, the fact that millions of their cousins across the Atlantic have no insurance and can't afford decent treatment is a farce as well as a tragedy.
TeyshaBlue
06-14-2011, 09:40 AM
I wonder what is driving this reform initiative. The 170b per year? Seems like chump change in the healthcare arena. We're spending something around 2t per year with only 5x the population of Great Britain. Sounds to me, as elephantine as the NHS can be, it's still operating pretty efficiently.
coyotes_geek
06-14-2011, 10:08 AM
free healthcare for all

lolz
ElNono
06-14-2011, 10:40 AM
lolz

What's 'lolz' about it?
coyotes_geek
06-14-2011, 10:51 AM
It's not free, that's what.
DarrinS
06-14-2011, 10:58 AM
I hear they have really good dental plans over there and it shows.
ElNono
06-14-2011, 11:15 AM
It's not free, that's what.

Access is certainly free for all. The cost is certainly paid by taxpayers. On that note, I would argue they get a lot more of their money's worth for their taxes.
ElNono
06-14-2011, 11:16 AM
I hear they have really good dental plans over there and it shows.

????
boutons_deux
06-14-2011, 11:26 AM
Yes, that documentary franchise Austin Powers mocked the bad English teeth.

btw, as internationally respected as the French national health system is, it doesn't cover vision, hearing, or dental, for which you buy private insurance or out of pocket.

None of these national health insurance systems are free. That's another big lie by the Repugs trashing any govt attempts to fix the US system. Repugs would much rather Human-Americans continue to be sucked dry by greedy sick-care providers and for-profit insurers.
DarrinS
06-14-2011, 03:29 PM
????

The Brits are kinda notorious for having a jacked up grille.
TeyshaBlue
06-14-2011, 04:06 PM
Yes, that documentary franchise Austin Powers mocked the bad English teeth.

btw, as internationally respected as the French national health system is, it doesn't cover vision, hearing, or dental, for which you buy private insurance or out of pocket.


Neither does Britain. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alicethomson/3553839/Bad-teeth-the-new-British-disease.html

3.7 dentists per 10,000! Holy carp.
ElNono
06-14-2011, 08:29 PM
The Brits are kinda notorious for having a jacked up grille.

Thanks. Haven't particularly noticed. Then again, I don't know that many Britons.
Capt Bringdown
06-16-2011, 02:21 AM
Surprise as life expectancy across US slides (http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/surprise-as-life-expectancy-across-us-slides-20110615-1g3q9.html)


LARGE swathes of the US are showing decreasing or stagnating life expectancy even as the nation's overall longevity trend has continued upwards, according to a county-by-county study of life expectancy over two decades.

Despite per capita spending on health care that is at least 50 per cent higher than European countries, the US is falling farther behind them with each passing year.