The row in the United States about the reform of its health system has spilled over to the United Kingdom.
Many American right-wingers and Republicans are attacking Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which was formed by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan in the aftermath of World War II when the country was in ruins, calling in it "socialised" and saying it denies proper medical care to the elderly and disabled.
One American newspaper even said that the disabled physicist Steven Hawking wouldn't have survived today had he been treated on Britain's NHS - but Hawking is British and has been treated on the NHS since the 1960s and has carried on living way beyond the few years life expectancy that doctors gave him when his motor neurone disease was diagnosed in the Sixties. He recently told the US: "I wouldn't be here today were it not for the NHS."
Barack Obama's stepmother, who is British, has also come out to defend the NHS.
Statistics show that in most ways, Britain's NHS is more effective than America's health care system (the WHO ranks the British health service as 18th best in the world and the US health service as 37th), and this is despite the fact that the US spends more on Britain on health. And surveys show the British are happier with their system than the Americans are with theirs. So the British must be doing something right that the Americans are doing wrong.
And the great thing is, the British get better treatment than the Yanks and we get it all for free, without having to sell our homes as so often happens in the US (see below).
Surely the Americans are just jealous?
NHS bashers make me sick
By Mark Austin
16/08/2009
The Mirror
There’s nothing we love more than indulging in a good old bout of NHS bashing.
But equally there’s nothing we hate more than outsiders, particularly perhaps Americans, getting stuck in to things we cherish.
And this week has seen just such a case.
The NHS has been dragged into a vicious political battle raging over health care in the United States.
President Obama wants to introduce a bigger government safety-net into the largely privatised system in a country where nearly 75 million people have no proper insurance.
The NHS was founded by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan on 5th July 1948
But right-wing opponents and vested interests are pointing to our Health Service as an example of the “disaster that awaits them”.
In campaign ads the NHS is being portrayed as an “evil, socialist system” that kills off the elderly and the disabled.
They paint a picture of dirty, MRSA-ridden wards and endless queues for treatment.
HEALTH SERVICES: US vs UK
Total health spending (% of GDP 2007)
US - 16%
UK - 8.4%
Spending per head of population (Adjusted for purchasing power parity)
US - $7,290
UK - $2,992
Life expectancy at birth
US - 80 years (female), 75 years (male)
UK - 81 years (female), 76 years (male)
Infant mortality rate (per 100,000 live births)
US - 6.26 deaths
UK - 4.85 deaths
The role of the public sector (% of all money spent on health coming from public funds)
US - 45%
UK - 82%
Children who died for every 100,000 treated in hospital in the US in 2000
With private medical insurance - 7.9
With only state insurance - 18.7
******************************************
Overall views of each health system
Minor changes needed
US - 38%
UK - 20%
Fundamental changes needed
US - 48%
UK - 46%
Rebuild completely
US - 33%
UK - 12%
*********************************************
Perception of wasteful care
Doctor recommended treatment you thought had little or no benefit
US - 27%
UK - 15%
Often/sometimes felt time was wasted due to poorly organised care
US -36%
UK - 18%
********************************
Cost-related problems
Did not visit visit a doctor when had a medical problem
US - 36%
UK - 4%
Did not get recommended test, treatment or follow-up
US - 38%
UK - 5%
Any of the above access problems because of cost
US - 53%
UK - 12%
*************************************************
Access to doctor
Same-day appointment
US - 27%
UK - 48%
6+ days' wait or can never get appointment
US - 23%
UK - 14%
(Source: 2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults)
Now I wouldn’t for a moment claim the NHS is anywhere near perfect. For example our success rates in dealing with cancer are much lower than in America.
The outcome also tends to be better for heart attack victims in the US.
But I will tell you one thing with absolute conviction.
If you’re knocked down by a bus and seriously injured tomorrow, just pray you end up in an NHS accident and emerg- ency ward.
You’ll get some of the best surgeons, the best anaesthetists and the best nurses in the world. You will also have the best chance of survival.
And there will be no mention of money. Not before your treatment, not during it and not after it.
In America, the first thing they’ll look for is not your pulse or the extent of your injuries but rather your credit card.
When you ask “What’s the damage?”, they won’t answer “a broken leg and a smashed pelvis but you’ll be fine”.
No. They’re far more likely to say, “Oh, about five thousand dollars”.
I should declare an interest here. My wife is currently a casualty doctor in an NHS hospital. And one story she told me sums up all my concerns about the American system of healthcare.
When she was a paediatrician she was looking after a baby with multiple congen-ital health problems and who required frequent operations and lengthy and intensive aftercare.
The NHS put considerable time and resources into the child’s treatment and it was never questioned.
When a doctor from America visited the unit, my wife asked him what would have happened to such a child in the States.
She was told the parents would almost certainly have had to sell their home. When the money ran out the treatment would have stopped. The problem, said the visiting doctor, was that most health insurance in America does not cover congenital abnormalities.
There is much wrong with the NHS that badly needs sorting out. Too much money spent on bureaucracy and not enough on the medicine for a start.
But sometimes we just don’t realise how lucky we are.
**********************************************
Barack Obama's stepmum: UK's NHS saved me
By Karen Rockett
16/08/2009
The Mirror
Kezia Obama, Barack Obama's British stepmother
Barack Obama's stepmum said yesterday she owed her life to the NHS.
British doctors and nurses saved Kezia Obama when she suffered kidney failure seven years ago. The 66-year-old, who lives in Bracknell, Berks, said she would not have been able to afford the treatment in the US.
Mrs Obama said: "If it wasn't for the NHS, I wouldn't have been alive to see our family's greatest moment - Barack sworn in.
"The doctors, nurses and surgeons cared for me like I was their own child."
And a top American doctor who left the US to work in the UK yesterday said: "I'm so proud to be part of the NHS."
Dr John Rubin, 56, a consultant at London's Royal National Throat, Ear and Nose Hospital, believes his home country would benefit from adopting our system. He said: "The ethos of the NHS is patient care and it is a huge part of what makes Britain so special. America can learn a lot."
An international row has erupted over President Obama's drive to reform the US health service. Republican Sarah Palin claimed Mr Obama would require the elderly and disabled to appear before "death panels".
mirror.co.uk
Many American right-wingers and Republicans are attacking Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which was formed by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan in the aftermath of World War II when the country was in ruins, calling in it "socialised" and saying it denies proper medical care to the elderly and disabled.
One American newspaper even said that the disabled physicist Steven Hawking wouldn't have survived today had he been treated on Britain's NHS - but Hawking is British and has been treated on the NHS since the 1960s and has carried on living way beyond the few years life expectancy that doctors gave him when his motor neurone disease was diagnosed in the Sixties. He recently told the US: "I wouldn't be here today were it not for the NHS."
Barack Obama's stepmother, who is British, has also come out to defend the NHS.
Statistics show that in most ways, Britain's NHS is more effective than America's health care system (the WHO ranks the British health service as 18th best in the world and the US health service as 37th), and this is despite the fact that the US spends more on Britain on health. And surveys show the British are happier with their system than the Americans are with theirs. So the British must be doing something right that the Americans are doing wrong.
And the great thing is, the British get better treatment than the Yanks and we get it all for free, without having to sell our homes as so often happens in the US (see below).
Surely the Americans are just jealous?
NHS bashers make me sick
By Mark Austin
16/08/2009
The Mirror
There’s nothing we love more than indulging in a good old bout of NHS bashing.
But equally there’s nothing we hate more than outsiders, particularly perhaps Americans, getting stuck in to things we cherish.
And this week has seen just such a case.
The NHS has been dragged into a vicious political battle raging over health care in the United States.
President Obama wants to introduce a bigger government safety-net into the largely privatised system in a country where nearly 75 million people have no proper insurance.
The NHS was founded by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan on 5th July 1948
But right-wing opponents and vested interests are pointing to our Health Service as an example of the “disaster that awaits them”.
In campaign ads the NHS is being portrayed as an “evil, socialist system” that kills off the elderly and the disabled.
They paint a picture of dirty, MRSA-ridden wards and endless queues for treatment.
HEALTH SERVICES: US vs UK
Total health spending (% of GDP 2007)
US - 16%
UK - 8.4%
Spending per head of population (Adjusted for purchasing power parity)
US - $7,290
UK - $2,992
Life expectancy at birth
US - 80 years (female), 75 years (male)
UK - 81 years (female), 76 years (male)
Infant mortality rate (per 100,000 live births)
US - 6.26 deaths
UK - 4.85 deaths
The role of the public sector (% of all money spent on health coming from public funds)
US - 45%
UK - 82%
Children who died for every 100,000 treated in hospital in the US in 2000
With private medical insurance - 7.9
With only state insurance - 18.7
******************************************
Overall views of each health system
Minor changes needed
US - 38%
UK - 20%
Fundamental changes needed
US - 48%
UK - 46%
Rebuild completely
US - 33%
UK - 12%
*********************************************
Perception of wasteful care
Doctor recommended treatment you thought had little or no benefit
US - 27%
UK - 15%
Often/sometimes felt time was wasted due to poorly organised care
US -36%
UK - 18%
********************************
Cost-related problems
Did not visit visit a doctor when had a medical problem
US - 36%
UK - 4%
Did not get recommended test, treatment or follow-up
US - 38%
UK - 5%
Any of the above access problems because of cost
US - 53%
UK - 12%
*************************************************
Access to doctor
Same-day appointment
US - 27%
UK - 48%
6+ days' wait or can never get appointment
US - 23%
UK - 14%
(Source: 2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults)
Now I wouldn’t for a moment claim the NHS is anywhere near perfect. For example our success rates in dealing with cancer are much lower than in America.
The outcome also tends to be better for heart attack victims in the US.
But I will tell you one thing with absolute conviction.
If you’re knocked down by a bus and seriously injured tomorrow, just pray you end up in an NHS accident and emerg- ency ward.
You’ll get some of the best surgeons, the best anaesthetists and the best nurses in the world. You will also have the best chance of survival.
And there will be no mention of money. Not before your treatment, not during it and not after it.
In America, the first thing they’ll look for is not your pulse or the extent of your injuries but rather your credit card.
When you ask “What’s the damage?”, they won’t answer “a broken leg and a smashed pelvis but you’ll be fine”.
No. They’re far more likely to say, “Oh, about five thousand dollars”.
I should declare an interest here. My wife is currently a casualty doctor in an NHS hospital. And one story she told me sums up all my concerns about the American system of healthcare.
When she was a paediatrician she was looking after a baby with multiple congen-ital health problems and who required frequent operations and lengthy and intensive aftercare.
The NHS put considerable time and resources into the child’s treatment and it was never questioned.
When a doctor from America visited the unit, my wife asked him what would have happened to such a child in the States.
She was told the parents would almost certainly have had to sell their home. When the money ran out the treatment would have stopped. The problem, said the visiting doctor, was that most health insurance in America does not cover congenital abnormalities.
There is much wrong with the NHS that badly needs sorting out. Too much money spent on bureaucracy and not enough on the medicine for a start.
But sometimes we just don’t realise how lucky we are.
**********************************************
Barack Obama's stepmum: UK's NHS saved me
By Karen Rockett
16/08/2009
The Mirror
Kezia Obama, Barack Obama's British stepmother
Barack Obama's stepmum said yesterday she owed her life to the NHS.
British doctors and nurses saved Kezia Obama when she suffered kidney failure seven years ago. The 66-year-old, who lives in Bracknell, Berks, said she would not have been able to afford the treatment in the US.
Mrs Obama said: "If it wasn't for the NHS, I wouldn't have been alive to see our family's greatest moment - Barack sworn in.
"The doctors, nurses and surgeons cared for me like I was their own child."
And a top American doctor who left the US to work in the UK yesterday said: "I'm so proud to be part of the NHS."
Dr John Rubin, 56, a consultant at London's Royal National Throat, Ear and Nose Hospital, believes his home country would benefit from adopting our system. He said: "The ethos of the NHS is patient care and it is a huge part of what makes Britain so special. America can learn a lot."
An international row has erupted over President Obama's drive to reform the US health service. Republican Sarah Palin claimed Mr Obama would require the elderly and disabled to appear before "death panels".
mirror.co.uk
Last edited:
