The Nation: Let's Hear It For the National Health Service

[marmar]

Let's Hear It For the National Health Service
posted by Maria Margaronis on 05/14/2009 @ 09:12am


"Dr. Sikora, do you feel there is a need to expand competition and choice for people in this country?" asks the interviewer. "Absolutely," says Dr. Karol Sikora, a senior British oncologist and former head of the World Health Organization's cancer program. "There's no incentive to offer people services in a state monopoly."

Dr. Sikora's interview is part of a TV ad campaign that's using the tragic stories of patients failed by Britain's National Health Service to block Obama's health care reforms. The ads are made by a group called Conservatives for Patients Rights, set up this year by the medical entrepreneur Richard Scott, who ran the $23 billion Columbia/HCA hospital chain until it was charged with massive Medicare fraud in 1997; the PR firm is CRC Public Relations, which masterminded the Swift boat attacks against John Kerry in 2004. Other segments feature a young woman whose cervical cancer went undiagnosed because NHS cervical screening starts at age 25 and who now may not make it, and another whose mother had to wait too long for kidney cancer surgery and subsequently died. This, they claim is the kind of thing that will happen to Americans if the medical business is made to contain its costs and open its doors to the poor.

While watching the ads on the web this morning I was also taking care of a piece of domestic business, trying to get through to our GP's office on the phone. Our ten-year-old son may need minor surgery; the appointment letter from the surgeon I chose with our doctor three or four weeks ago hasn't yet arrived. I had to call a couple of times before someone picked up, and I began to get irritated and read some of the endless news stories on the internet about the failings of the NHS. Then I spoke to the practice secretary. Ten minutes later, I got a call from the surgeon's office, offering us an appointment for next week. Sorted.

Like most British people, I have a love-hate relationship with the NHS, which definitely has its problems. There can be long waiting times for diagnosis and surgery; there is the so-called "post-code lottery," which means that treatment (especially cancer treatment) varies a lot depending on where you live. The bureaucracy's complexity is legendary. Expensive and potentially life saving or life extending drugs are not available to everyone who needs them. Hospitals are understaffed; MRSA infections are an ongoing issue.

But in the 14 years we've lived in London, members of my family have had, without a single bill: two hospital births, one attended by midwives in a birthing pool, the other requiring weekly scans by a top fetal medicine specialist; child development checks and vaccinations; lithotripsy for kidney stones; a tonsillectomy; physiotherapy for a broken arm; annual consultations for a chronic chest condition; and countless GP appointments for minor ailments in and out of hours, as well as free medicines and eye exams for the children. The practitioners and staff we have dealt with have been, almost without exception, professional, dedicated, overworked, and very kind. (I'll never forget the vigilant theatre nurse who watched our daughter wake up from a general anaesthetic.) The doctors we see often roll their eyes at the frustrations of the system, but they also know how to get the best from it for their patients. I have never once felt that cost was a factor in the treatments we were offered--though I know this might be different in some cases. Given the choice between an NHS teaching hospital and one that's run for profit, I know which I'd choose every time. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/435780/let_s_hear_it_for_the_national_health_service

[mdmc]

1. 1. policy 2. politics

1. Single payer is the way to go. From there you can discuss policy once again - how to provide better medical service.
2. We have a long way to go politically. The government is owned by lobbyist and corporations. We will be funding the phara/hmo industry for a long time to come. Unless there is major public outcry, we will have a private system well into Obama's second term.

[Kalyke]

2. Britain doesn't have single-payer - they have National Health Care.

And, as far as I know, that isn't what the majority of Americans are advocating. We're advocating something more akin to what Canada has - single-payer. In other words, let the doctors, hospitals and other health care professionals work privately, but get rid of the intrusive, expensive and useless insurance companies and dole out "insurance" via a Medicare-for-all-type service that handles the basic needs of every American.

Our side needs to counter these ads with a Sicko-type campaign that shows how much more reliable single-payer is for MOST people (not the handful who get caught up in bureaucracy, which happens under our current system far more often).

[snowdays]

3. The outcry for Single Payer has to get LOUDER AND MORE PERSISTANT.

[abluelady]

4. I Agree With You

But we couldn't end the war--how are we going to get this done????