NPR corrects the record about the British single-payer system.

[Buzz Clik]

Then NHS has been hammered endlessly by Fox News. NPR decided to go to the source and pursue a bit of truth:

The National Health Service in the United Kingdom has become a punching bag for some critics of proposals to remake the U.S. health care system. Britons are offended by how some U.S. media outlets have singled the British system out for what not to do.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111976186

The story is 3:37 long and well worth the listen.

On the same program, they followed up:

Steve Inskeep talks to Lord Ara Darzi, a surgeon and British government advisor, about Britain's National Health Service. Conservative groups in the U.S. claim that the British system does not serve the population very well.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111976190

Just the facts -- something you won't hear on Fox News.

[R. P. McMurphy]

1. kick

[mod mom]

2. heard it. Why doesn't the media confront those who lied and make them come clean w the public?

[DemReadingDU]

3. Heard that this morning

This should be played on TV so more people hear the facts

[Buzz Clik]

4. I'm a bit surprised (just a bit) that this hasn't been done by television on their own.

[elocs]

5. I heard this today on NPR and I'm glad somebody posted it.

Nothing like hearing the actual facts as opposed to the manufactured lies.

[Buzz Clik]

6. I was also pleased to hear the liars called for what they are.

It was highly satisfying.

[elocs]

17. I wish Obama would take off the gloves and call them for what they are too. n/t

[Selatius]

7. The problem is in middle America they hear nothing but Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

There are worse demagogues out there besides those two.

[elocs]

16. NPR is a lot like getting excited about what Keith or Rachel say

when the people who need to hear the message do not listen to them.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. The British system is NOT single-payer.

'Single-payer' refers generally to subsidised national insurance schemes (which the NHS is not; hospitals are owned by NHS Trusts, doctors and health workers are directly emplyed by the NHS).

[Buzz Clik]

10. Lord Ara Darzi disagrees at least in part.

Darzi: Every patient or member of the public in England is registered with a primary care physician. You go and see your general practioner, your general practioner will refer you on, and the cost of that referral and the payment to that hospital is made by this local insurer which we call Primary Care Trust. The payment is made by a single payer.
Innskeep: Single payer. The government. End of story.
Darzi: Yes.

A trust? Yes, but still a single payer. :shrug:

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. Not 'single payer' in the sense of Canada's system.

It's a public system, the money comes from taxation and is disbursed via the NHS which owns most hospitals and employs (directly or indirectly) most doctors. It is more equivalent to the VA hospital system in the US than to the Canadian health system.

[Buzz Clik]

15. Fair enough.

[Bluerthanblue]

9. i heard this too- THANK YOU for posting it- wish

it would get picked up by more media-

The LIES need to be exposed.

K&R

[vinylsolution]

11. Thank you NPR....

... For being a small voice of reason in a world of corporate media bellowing / scaremongering.

From a Brit in Colorado, who wants an NHS-style system for all Americans!

[Buzz Clik]

12. As a Colorado ex-pat...

... love your avatar, lover your sig.

[vinylsolution]

18. The NHS should send in George Galloway MP....

... to confront this idiot Grassley.

We'd be cheering him on all the way!

[bullwinkle428]

14. The guy DESTROYED Grassley and his pathetic talking points,

but sadly, very few who NEED to hear this kind of thing actually will.

[ceile]

19. Thanks for posting- I missed it!