Britain defends its health care against U.S. criticisms

The angry debate over health care reform in the U.S. is triggering another round of outrage overseas. Officials in Great Britain are now fighting back to defend their system from the criticisms of Americas right.

Comments about Britains National Health Service (NHS) — some calling the system evil or Orwellian have drawn the attention of many U.K. residents, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who this week joined a Twitter campaign to defend health care in his country.

Andrew Clark, the New York correspondent for The Guardian, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how Britons view the U.S. health care debate.

http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/08/14/britain-defends-its-health-care-against...

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• National Health Service
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[Pilkingtube]

Would Steven Hawking have died with the British healthcare system? Steven Hawking IS British, he uses the freaking NHS, it saved his damn life. :/

[jazzx251]

@Pilkingtube

Yes - at the time this was being debated, the right wing suggested, upon Hawking's visit to the US, that socialised medicine would have left him dead by now.

But ... he's an NHS patient. When he caught motor neuron, he was a lowly student. Without the NHS, we would not have had 40 years of genius. Under the US system, he would have withered and died - and been branded as a "loser" for being uninsured (and above all unwealthy).

[RedRebel6666]

And because its free doesn't make it shit.. im all patched up and im still sexy as fuck and fit as a fiddle 

[RedRebel6666]

Can't you americans just step back and look at it in its basic form, everyone in the United Kingdom gets FREE health care, whether that be to see a doctor, surgery, cancer treatment transplants.. the works, its all free but prescriptions.. whats there to bash about it, NHS has patched me up from my face being kicked the shit into to when i was stabbed as a young teen

FUCK you americans and whatever problem you have with the NHS

[emmersonforest4]

I am British and i am deeply offended by comments attacking our NHS the plain truth is we are a healtier nation and pay less for the service the trick is not to treat the illness at the end but treat it early to prevent disease from manifesting itself.The republican politics are all lies and what they have been saying is outrageous. Hawking uses the NHS and to say we dont look after our elderley is rich when your hospitals dump cancer patients on the street if they cant pay there bill.

[Etheoma]

ok guys a simple thing for you to take away 78.1 year the average life expectancy of the untied states 80.1 the average life expectancy of the united kingdom

and yours costs a lot more per person and covers less people and overall seems to do a worse job

@MondoBeno the education has falling back in quailty in resent years in manufacturing but I think that's mainly due to the fact that there were hardly any jobs being created in it though

[MondoBeno]

Britain has caps on malpractice torts, so the physicians don't have to pay all that malpractice insurance. Education costs less, so your GP isn't struggling to pay back $200,000 in student loans.

[cinarossacina]

Americans are a bunch of idiots and they always call "evil" what they don't know or what their corporations don't want them to know

[BENJIMANBREEG33]

A lot of elderly people in the UK have been let down by the NHS. Its not the NHS thats the problem though, its due to the country being packed to the rafters.