Posted on 01/25/2023 8:07:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The British healthcare system is collapsing, and it couldn’t come at a worse time for the governing party of the United Kingdom. The Conservative Party is already reeling from multiple political crises that saw the exits of Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is staring a massive social calamity in the face amid sinking poll numbers for his party. The next British general election isn’t until 2025, but Sunak is already trailing Labour by at least 20 points in the polls. Yet, he can’t worry about that now since the National Health Service will collapse without reform. This sentiment is shared across the board, even among liberal newspapers.
Robert Moffit went deeper into the weeds in his piece for The Daily Signal, where he reiterated the benefits and pitfalls of such a system: access to care is universal, but the quality is less than sub-par, with roughly 11 percent of the UK population still waiting on emergency care. Cancer treatments have been grossly disrupted, thanks to the COVID pandemic, and tweaks, which have long been called for, appear to be a top necessity now if the UK wishes to save this system (via Daily Signal):
He was asked three times whether he received private medical care or relied upon the National Health Service, the British version of “single-payer” government-run national health insurance.
Sunak dismissed the question as “not really relevant.” But it is.
The prime minister is the head of the British government and is ultimately responsible for the National Health Service, the government agency that’s supposed to provide “free” universal coverage and care for all of Britain’s citizens.
It does no such thing.
According to the BBC, there are 7.2 million British citizens awaiting medical care, or almost 11% of the entire British population. And Sky News reports that more than 400,000 people in England have been awaiting hospital treatment for more than a year.
Right now, the most salient problem is emergency care. According to The Telegraph, December data show that people suffering a heart attack face an average wait of 90 minutes for an ambulance, with some waiting up to two and a half hours. For emergency care, The Telegraph further reports, 55,000 people were forced to wait on hospital gurneys for “at least” 12 hours following emergency department decisions to admit them.
Of course, patients suffering from a stroke or a heart attack are always in a race against time, as medical delays can result in permanent disability or death.
Surveying the carnage, Dr. Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, estimated that between 300 and 500 people are dying each week because of delays and related problems in the delivery of emergency medical care.
Moffit added that this is what Democrats are trying to import here, including all the provisions that’s driving the NHS’ demise:
The reality, however, is this: The congressional single-payer bill (HR 1976) contains the key components driving the implosion of the British health care system, including government budgeting, bureaucratic central planning, and reduced pay for doctors and nurses.
Yet, last year, 120 House Democrats co-sponsored the legislation.
In sharp contrast to the congressional liberals’ top-down regime, which would restrict private coverage and care for Americans, British patients are still free to go outside of the British single-payer program and spend their own money on private health insurance coverage and care of their choice.
As noted, Sunak, the prime minister, has that option, even though he won’t say whether he has taken advantage of it.
Big reductions in the pay of medical professionals, as authorized in the congressional single-payer legislation, can indeed reduce health care spending. But there is a big price: You pay less, and you get less.
The issue of health care has been something of a unicorn regarding public policy. Both sides know there’s a problem—it exists—but the solutions remain elusive. The 2016 election exposed that both sides know the system is atrocious, especially the cost of prescription drugs. The neo-populist resurgence on both sides appear to at least agree on that part. They know reforms need to be made, with some device costs being astoundingly ludicrous but the bridge between the two sides isn’t built yet. The Left rails about how health care is a human right and the like, which I think turns people off.
I don’t need a lecture—tell me what’s your plan. I’m all ears. As for the UK, say a few novenas because I feel things are about to get much worse for their system. I’m shocked liberals here haven’t blamed Trump yet.
They’re past trying.
Arizona has a lot to look forward to since they elected Hobbs. A lot more of this to come.
RE: Arizona has a lot to look forward to since they elected Hobbs.
Ahhh, but DID THEY?
Damned sure didn’t. Lake won that thing all day long.
Hopefully some of this new news might come to something.
I don’t believe that the majority of Arizonians elected Hobbs. There is no way to know without an audit of voting rolls and votes what the will of Arizonians were. For all we know, they could have been 90% against Hobbs, but their votes were statistically and scientifically nullified.
Why aren’t we talking about the Democrats and Republicans following the lead of the UK the first nation to announce tanks for Ukraine?
Biden’s decision to follow that lead with tanks for Ukraine is dangerous and deadly to folks in Ukraine if not others once Putin is pushed to use nuclear weapons.
Or is that what the Democrats and Republicans want nukes to lower the world’s population level and Putin as the scapegoat?
uh we don’t have elections in blue/purple states.
we have machine ‘counters’ and ‘certified counts.’
Sad/infuriating, but true.
“Well it worked, didn’t it?”
Yup.
And what I’ve always found interesting about all of it is, no one ever seems to get a look at the actual ballots.
They reported that when Murkowski won her election in 2010, I think, she did it with write-ins. Ballots were illegible and not filled out properly. But they accepted them anyway. All to make sure her corrupt a$$ was sent back to DC.
Collapsing?
It collapsed a long time ago.
I am for healthcare reform. We are all getting ripped off.
Also a bit of “you get what you pay for”.
In 2020, the U.S. spent 19% of its GDP on health consumption, whereas the next-highest comparable country (the United Kingdom) devoted 13% of its GDP to health spending.
In pounds per head, that’s £2,892 on healthcare for every person in the UK and £7,617 per person in the US.
I was a resident of the UK for several years and under their health care system. My son was born there and I paid nothing for his birth. The care was excellent. I did pay an obscene amount of income taxes and health care taxes thus I really did pay for the medical care for I, myself and new born son. I was okay with this.
On the occasion that we needed something done that was not critical and could wait, I went to a private physician or dentist and paid out of my own pocket. We did not want to wait for weeks or more.
Immediate critical care was very good. This was in 1979. From what I have been reading this is no longer the case.
Obamacare was designed to kill off the older population.
Covid-19.........
Yesterday the UK suddenly dropped Covid vaccine and boosters for healthy people under age 50. Why the sudden change in policy? Could it be a realization the sustained rise in “unexplained” deaths is associated with vaccine policy? If true the NHS will see immediate savings in providing fewer vaccine doses as well as fewer emergency cases of heart failure in young people.
I get a little annoyed by these comparisons. They are not comparing the same thing. Basically for the US this is the sale of anything with a health code, which is one of two items that inflate the US costs, the other is the number of people from outside the US that come here for care. For most of the rest of the world they use the national budget line item for health care.
It already is here.
We have a de facto NHS.
And ours is just as unfit for purpose as theirs is.
Clap for carers!
Even the much vaunted Canadian health care system has patients coming to the US for treatment to avoid the long waits. A Canadian MP had her breast cancer treated in the US and the leader of the Labrador government who went to Florida for treatment of his heart condition.
Our Healthcare Systems here in the US are mostly fantastic.
What’s out of control is Healthcare Insurance. And that is largely driven by lawyers and lawsuits.
Dems conflate “Healthcare” with “Healthcare Insurance” on purpose, to implement Government Control.
Always bring that up, it’s Healthcare Insurance that needs fixing, NOT Healthcare.
Don’t let them get away with it, even once.
Is Rishi Sunak a graduate of the Young Global Leaders WEF school?
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