National Health Care a British Perspective

[sprPee]

THIS IS BULLSHIT NOW YOU DIE ENGLANDER

[lizziedavidson1987]

If he left England '40 years ago' he left in 1959- 11 years AFTER the creation of the NHS . Yet he contradicts this by saying that the government was 'creating a lot of social programmes including healthcare' (starting from 0:20) the NHS was thought up at the end of WWII (1945) and implemented 3 years later (1948). This guy doesn't know what he's talking about!

[flynn2008]

Only competition and choice can ensure constant improvement while lowering price.

[megamarsvin]

Looking at the responses from actual British citizens on this video I'd say the case for the NHS is pretty clear; certainly there are issues but they are minor compared to the risk of going bankrupt overnight simply because someone in your family gets sick.

A risk that is virtually unknown in the developed world outside the U.S. I might add.

[MrLems87]

Living in the UK 40 years ago doesn't qualify him to talk about it. Waiting lists are nowhere near this bad. No-one is expendable. Someone riddled with cancer would definitely get fast treatment, I have many friends who work in the NHS.

[PALINSMITH]

I only report what I see. I don't make policy. If I did, the first thing I would do is save British Culture from invasion. It is my culture as well.

[hauskalainen]

Readers of this should google "potentialandexpectations" (all one word) to find the word press blog by "Strawberry", an American woman who lived in the UK and later moved back to the US in much more recent times that this guy. She has had recent dealings with both US and UK health care systems.

Her story is a "must read".

[hauskalainen]

The are more views, this time from Americans living in the UK today

Someone from Ohio watch?v=yPiMMCD3ec4

And someone from Alaskan watch?v=SFEnbRt-4FE

[hauskalainen]

As a Brit who knows the health care system in the UK very well, the story that this man tells does not seem to ring true. It simply does not take a person riddled with cancer six weeks to schedule an appointment!

I find it interesting that the camera was right next to this guy. I suspect he was a plant, put there to scare people.

[PALINSMITH]

@hauskalainen

I filmed this....I live in Woodbury, 90 miles away from New London.

This was the 2nd time I ever videoed Mr. Dodd.

Case closed........

I believe this guy...I hear no good stories about the UK health care system!!

Nada!!

[hauskalainen]

@PALINSMITH Just google "welovethenhs" for some balance. We Brits live in a democracy you know. The NHS has lasted more than 60 years and EVERY political party supports it. That is a clear sign that I am right and you are wrong.

[moneybagzz]

@hauskalainen

it's lasted 60 years b/c it's the primary way that politicians buy votes. No NHS no tool w/ which to bribe voters. It is a symbol of governmental greed, nothing more.

[hauskalainen]

@moneybagzz The most stupid comment ever!

Politicians promise to protect the NHS because the public knows that the alternative would be much less efficient and the public in the UK want the NHS to be funded from taxes.

When Brits are asked would they pay more taxes to improve the NHS the answer is always yes. They are not "bribed" but willing taxpayers and satisfied customers.

[moneybagzz]

I would have to disagree. Politicians, from the beginning of time, have always looked @ the earnings/assets of citizens w/ greed that would make Lloyd Blankfein look like a boyscout.

When asked if they would like more taxes to pay for the NHS of course they will say a resounding 'Yes! I most certainly want OTHER PEOPLE to foot the bill for my health care!'

As for efficiency, I have yet to uncover any governmental system characterized by efficiency.

[hauskalainen]

@moneybagzz

All pay taxes on income and in spending. Nobody avoids tax.

NHS is a perfect insurance system. Over a lifetime the cost is hardly felt and you then get (mostly) free health care from cradle to the grave, If you are unfortunate and happen to be very sick you may get back more than you pay in and vice versa for the fortunate healthy. That is what insurance is.

In the USA the system punishes you for being sick - the very opposite of the insurance concept.

[hauskalainen]

@moneybagzz

BBC, NHS, DVLC, Road and railway network, schools, libraries, fire, ambulances, postal system, armed forces, the police are ALL very efficient public services in the UK.

Often its when these services are privatized that they go bad. The railway infrastructure was privatized and it went into such bad shape it had to be taken back into government hands. Privatized hospital cleaning was another disaster.

If you only pay people peanuts, you get monkeys.

[scottishlad1987]

@moneybagzz well how efficient can the american system be when people are getting rich through health care? not very.

i like the way you twisted his words there, he said when asked if they "would pay more taxes" to improve health care the answer is yes, and you repeated it as when asked if they "would like more taxes to be paid"- and then you went on to say the reason for this is that we want other people to pay for our health care. naughty.

[moneybagzz]

@hauskalainen

According to my understanding, survival rates for various ailments in the supposedly inefficient American system are higher than that of other countries w/ governmentally rationed care.

In the US Single-payer Medicare, approximately $60-100 billion per year (depending on how it is measured) in fraud. That exceeds the profits of health insurance providers by a wide margin (approximately $12 billion for 2008, if my memory serves me correctly).

[hauskalainen]

@moneybagzz

If two health care systems were equally efficient you would expect that half the time system A would have better outcome statistics than System B and vice versa. The problem with those statistics is that they are selective and often focussed on cancer outcomes from US cancer registers that do not cover the total population and are over represented by the large teaching hospitals with better facilities. Over use of screening can also make outcomes look better than they really are.

[hauskalainen]

@PALINSMITH

We Brits live in a democracy. The NHS has lasted more than 60 years and EVERY political party without exception supports it.

If you were right and I were wrong, the political parties would be queing up to abolish it.

Just Google "welovethenhs" to get some balance.

[moneybagzz]

@hauskalainen

every political party supports b/c that's the only way to buy votes. Look @ the disgrace of the Congressional Democrats when Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. I find it sickening that one party would be so anti-private property as to vote that way. It's like being stabbed in the back.

[mxdirector]

@PALINSMITH

You have never heard a good story, really? Google "hawkings nhs" and you will find one.

Now you can't say you hav'nt heard a good story about the British nhs. :)

[PALINSMITH]

@mxdirector

The elites always get "special" treatment. Is this the same guy who warned about talking to the space aliens amonst us?

[kromed01]

@PALINSMITH Stephen Hawkings was saved by the British NHS before he was an elite.

[VanDoodah]

@PALINSMITH I feel obliged to point out that almost 100% of the British public supports the NHS. Every industrialised nation in the world besides America has universal healthcare and none of us spend even nearly as much of our GDP on it as you guys do.

Not that any of that will change your mind, of course, because you right wing Americans have been brainwashed into cowering in fear every time one of your fascist leaders uses the word "socialism".

[hauskalainen]

@PALINSMITH

No news is good news. Think of Apollo 1, Apollo 13, and 2 shuttle missions which killed all the crew. And Hubble, launched with a faulty mirror. Is NASA a failure? No!

The NHS is a great success by the MILLIONS of stories that never hit the headlines. Brits know this. Americans (some at least) who only read newspaper articles do not.

An Ispos-MORI survey found newspapers were the WORST source of information about the NHS.

[beastatlay]

@PALINSMITH

"I hear no good stories about the UK health care system"

My 62yr old mother had a mastectomy for aggressive breast cancer within 8 days of diagnosis, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, then reconstructive surgery 18 months later. My 64yr old father still receives treatment after the heart attack he suffered 5 years ago. No death panels with hooded Muslims craning over him in Sharia judgement.

Medical bills - NIL. Two positive stories from one UK citizen. Are we learning, Elmer?

[lizziedavidson1987]

@PALINSMITH I can tell you hundreds of good stories about the NHS; both from personal, family experiences and from friends. You are NOT asking the right people!

[moneybagzz]

@hauskalainen

Always count on governmental incompetence. I doubt if he was a plant; the only real incentives politicians have are to glom up tax payer dollars and flush them down the proverbial toilet; there ain't no greed like government greed.

[pmanngw]

I am also British and live now in the USA. I moved here three years ago. America is a fantastic country and gets a hell of a lot right - a hell of a lot that the UK gets wrong. However, on healthcare it's completely wrong. This mans views are extremely rare in the UK (as are those of that British politican that nobody has ever heard of in the UK that the networks over here keep wheeling out.)

It's interesting that no UK political party runs for election on a mandate of scrapping the NHS.

[moneybagzz]

@pmanngw

How can they possibly propose to scrap the NHS when it is the main tool by which they promise voters no-cost goodies? It would be like a Congressional Democrat (in the US) saying "I want to alienate the senior vote!" Or like Osama Bin Laden applying to a Roman Catholic Seminary.

[SummerHerald]

No wonder america's so politically extreme - the world's weirdoes moved there!

40 years in america? Don't come back!

[PALINSMITH]

@SummerHerald

The "wierdos" have been arriving for 400 years. Some came of their own free will, some were forced, but they all come voluntarily now.

It's the only place on planet Earth that freedom is celebrated openly and often.

For most of the world's oppressed peoples, yes, that is Extreme!!

[hauskalainen]

@PALINSMITH

What makes people like you think that only America has freedom and democracy?

[Scootertuner1000]

I am British, I live in the USA. I live here so my wife can be near her family, no other reason. I would move back this afternoon if she would go. What this bloke is saying is complete and utter tripe.

complete nonsense and I am sick of people like him. He is a traitor.

[SFYDUROSE]

You couldn't better yourself because of the class system in the Uk

[davijeph]

I did.The man speaking in the video is so "I,m all right jack" he leaves the country of his birth because he feels no responsibility towards is fellow countrymen .Luckily the country is full of people trying hard to better themselves and family like any free-market system .Some will fail ,most will succeed but ether way but none will fail because they cannot pay for medical bills.

[MrBullfrog9876]

Our govt. is trillions of dollars in debt, can't seem to do anything right any more so I make a motion that we put them in charge of our health care! Any more of you nuts want to vote with me?

[hi262779]

Making a judgement on a whole healthcare system based on one case, is simply lunacy.

[hauskalainen]

This man's stories are very suspect. Why? Because the NHS is OBLIGED to give EVERY patient suspected of having cancer an appointment within TWO WEEKS. No ifs. No buts. Six weeks doesn't happen.

AND it is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of age. For just about anything That is the law in England and it is enforced in the NHS too. So that bit about her age was wrong too.

Read the NHS constitution and check your facts matey!

[Dunc89]

The NHS is the best thing about this country.

You left the country 40 years ago? Good, don't come back.

[joeratti]

@Dunc89 thats a good little government sheeple.

[DrdotJoe]

What a load of rubbish. Sure likes the sound of his own voice !!!

"I left England 40 years ago...!!!!" enough said thanks

[PALINSMITH]

Considering the invasion from the middle east, it's probably much worse now!

For that poor guy......there's no place left to find sanctuary from lunacy.

[robfsb]

Do you think the UK system is the same as it was 40 years ago?

[FrsBigeasy]

Listen to this guy! He lived under a Single Payer Health Care system! He knows what he's talking about.

He might be lucky to survive living under that system.

[robfsb]

He hasn't lived there for 40 years.

[FrsBigeasy]

Ok how long has he lived under the UK System?

[RebelVoDKa]

I'm British and have used the NHS all my life. So have my family and friends.

Do you want to listen to me as I know what I'm talking about?

Because I think the NHS is great.

[FrsBigeasy]

I'm glad you enjoy your Health Care. But some of your other countrymen disagree.

[RebelVoDKa]

But the VAST majority agree with me on this one.

It sounds like you're more receptive to criticism of the NHS than praise, but if you want to hear from more happy British NHS-users then Google welovethenhs.

If Americans don't want a similar system then that's up to them but here in Britain we're fed up with being falsely accused by the American media of having a corrupt Nazi-like system.

If people have to lie then they haven't got much of a case.

[FrsBigeasy]

No I'm pointing out the problems with a Single Payer Health Care system or a government run Health Care system & when there's someone who's lived under that system & they don't like it like in this report & can explain why, that helps me make my case.