Opinion of the National Health Service

[You kip if you want to...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service


Freedom service!

[Free Palestine]

Horrible service.

[Ameriplan]

Horrible service.

[opebo]

One reason I'd give my pinky finger to be British instead of American (even though being British is nearly as shameful, perhaps even slightly more so).

[Franzl]

Not really horrible...but there are much better ways to do universal healthcare...so I have a relatively negative opinion.

[doktorb]

"The closest thing the British have to a religion", to paraphrase Norman Lamont.....

The NHS is probably at its most bloated and over-managed, as well as being at its most effective and popular; it's always been a crazy mixed bag of the terrible and the wonderful.

I am incredibly proud of the NHS, and living in a country where my healthcare is effectively free (except dentistry. Oh, and  most eye-care...) is something quite close to a genuine  honour. The fact that my National Insurance contributions are the only "tax" I pay for national healthcare is one to be shouted from the roof-tops. I don't need to be scared about being too poor to be ill.

HOWEVER, I do worry that the NHS institution is itself too poor. There are too many managers, there are too much administration. Layer upon layer of bodies have been created, un-created, re-organised, by successive governments who often don't recognise how good it could be if left alone to look after itself for a while.

The NHS is flawed, but there is no perfect system, which is why the Amercian "anti-Obamacare" clap-trap is so laughable. How can a system where millions of people in a superpower have no access to affordable healthcare be better than ANYTHING else?

I will study the Coalition proposals for the future of healthcare carefully. To give power back to the NHS should be the priority; the State does not always have the best medicine.

[Franzl]

I do find it amusing how the British worship the NHS when insurance based universal systems provide a lot more freedom and usually somewhat superior care for about the same cost.

[doktorb]

Insurance schemes don't provide freedom for the low-paid, part-time worker on a fixed income, or the unemployed.

[Franzl]

Insurance schemes don't provide freedom for the low-paid, part-time worker on a fixed income, or the unemployed.

Why not? Works in Germany, where the government pays the premiums for low income people.

[doktorb]

 The German system is flawed insofar as there is no one universal health insurance scheme. Low income people are still denied access to affordable treatment at the time of need.

[Franzl]

The German system is flawed insofar as there is no one universal health insurance scheme. Low income people are still denied access to affordable treatment at the time of need.

So you are claiming that there are people in Germany that go without necessary medical treatment? Is that part of the NHS propaganda?

I get the feeling you are more concerned that everyone receive 100 percent equal treatment, regardless of overall quality. Why on Earth is it a problem as long as nobody goes without care?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The big problem with any private insurance-based system is its in the insurance company's interest to deny payment and always dig up some excuse why this would not be covered.

[Franzl]

The big problem with any private insurance-based system is its in the insurance company's interest to deny payment and always dig up some excuse why this would not be covered.

I didn't say anything about for-profit private insurance.

[doktorb]

I am concerned that there are people who are denied treatment because of their wealth.

The NHS is not perfect in this regard, like I said, very few services could be invented where there is true "universal health care". The problem is acute in Britain with denistry, for example, where NHS "free" denistry is something of a "hen's teeth" situation....

There are serious questions ahead on medical spending; expensive cancer treatments, for example, and the cost of long-term health care for the elderly. The NHS has the machinery to deal with these costs but lacks the oil to keep the cogs moving quite so smoothly as I would like; I fear insurance schemes such as the German model left the machine in a state beyond repair for too long.

[Franzl]

So just to make sure I understand you...you are claiming that people are denied necessary treatment in Germany (and most of continental Europe) because of lack of ability to pay...and that only totally government run systems can prevent this?

[afleitch]

I don't think it helps making difficult to assert assumptions about healthcare coverage in Germany; no one has yet answered Franzl's questions clearly. Also the movement to such a system is (or should I say was) suggested by the Orange Book Lib Dems.

However, replacing the current system to a 'German' model would be a mammoth effort given the size and depth of the NHS and it's vested interests. It would also introduce a new layer of beaurocracy for what would essentially be exchanging 'like for like' if the goal is universal coverage. Secondly it wouldn't fly - there is an emotional 'baggage' attached to the NHS which makes even very basic changes to it's structure more protracted than they need be.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

If I were British, I would support abolishing the National Health "Service".

[opebo]

I do find it amusing how the British worship the NHS when insurance based universal systems provide a lot more freedom and usually somewhat superior care for about the same cost.

Probably because they contrast it to the dire, deadly situation which existed before the NHS and which currently exists in the USA.

[You kip if you want to...]

If I were British, I would support abolishing the National Health "Service".

Well, you'd join the very small portion of the population who would support such a move.

[Franzl]

I don't think it helps making difficult to assert assumptions about healthcare coverage in Germany; no one has yet answered Franzl's questions clearly. Also the movement to such a system is (or should I say was) suggested by the Orange Book Lib Dems.

However, replacing the current system to a 'German' model would be a mammoth effort given the size and depth of the NHS and it's vested interests. It would also introduce a new layer of beaurocracy for what would essentially be exchanging 'like for like' if the goal is universal coverage. Secondly it wouldn't fly - there is an emotional 'baggage' attached to the NHS which makes even very basic changes to it's structure more protracted than they need be.

I'm not necessarily saying you should switch Just giving my opinion of the system....and trying to figure out what would lead someone to believe that people go without healthcare in Continental Europe.

[Vepres]

As somebody who has never used it or known anybody who has, I will declare it horrible service for purely ideological reasons like some judgmental bastard.

[k-onmmunist]

I do find it amusing how the British worship the NHS when insurance based universal systems provide a lot more freedom and usually somewhat superior care for about the same cost.

The NHS was a damnsight more efficient than any other healthcare system. Its decline is due to corner cutting by governments since the 1950s.

[You kip if you want to...]

I do find it amusing how the British worship the NHS when insurance based universal systems provide a lot more freedom and usually somewhat superior care for about the same cost.

The NHS was a damnsight more efficient than any other healthcare system. Its decline is due to corner cutting by governments since the 1950s.

And even now, for it's faults, it's pretty reassuring that you can walk into your local hospital to be seen without fear of massive debts or the possibility of being declined coverage.

[Franzl]

And even now, for it's faults, it's pretty reassuring that you can walk into your local hospital to be seen without fear of massive debts or the possibility of being declined coverage.

And is this different from....say....the German healthcare system?

[doktorb]

And even now, for it's faults, it's pretty reassuring that you can walk into your local hospital to be seen without fear of massive debts or the possibility of being declined coverage.

And is this different from....say....the German healthcare system?

The German system is layered and not universal.