Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Friends Don't Let Friends Have Nationalized Health Care



An impassioned plea from famed UK MEP Danial Hannan on what a burden the UK's National Health Service has become.

Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan warns the United States about socialized/nationalized health care like the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Hannan has called the NHS a "mistake for 60 years" and said, "People can see for themselves that Britain has become a place where foreigners fear to fall ill...."

Daniel Hannan in his co-authored book "The Plan" previously outlined a critical position on the UK's universal healthcare system and advocated one of private insurance contributions and individual payments for GP visits.

"Allow patients to opt out of the NHS and instead pay their contributions into individual health accounts. A proportion of these accounts to be used for everyday healthcare, and a proportion set aside for insurance against serious illness."[19]

"Such a system would involve individuals initially paying around ten per cent of their income into their health account. This would be offset by a compensating tax cut. From this payment, a small amount (£300 to £400 per annum) would be used to pay for private catastrophic medical insurance. Individual citizens would choose the health services they wanted. If they chose to see their GP, they would pay whatever rate they and the GP agreed. If they wished to see a GP after hours, they could do so: there might be a higher fee, but that would be between them and the GP. If they thought that an ailment required a specialist, they could go directly to a specialist of their choice, bypassing the GP."[20]

So, why would America like to go backward in health care progress?

Ask someone who lives within a socialized health care system and desperately wants to change it.

Exit Observation:Here is the latest horror story from the UK's NHS Dentistry.


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1 comment:

  1. Well we need to go SOMEWHERE, because the current system is broken. For that matter, what do foreign tourists do here when they get sick? Try to find a doctor who isn't part of an HMO and hope that they brought enough money with them to pay out of pocket? Not the same problem, but still a problem.

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