Twenty to eleven, and it hasn't been dry all day. Ferry is doing three crossings today, and it left port at 8.15pm, some 75 minutes late. It is by all accounts booked up to the gunnels. Spent the last wee while totting up the number of portraits I can add to the Roll of Honour files - 700. Need to process 220 pictures to get up to that total though, so that'll keep me busy over the weekend.
I am frankly stunned at the way the NHS is vilified in the United States, as a way of opposing the changes that President Obama is seeking to implement. Although far from perfect, the NHS has served the United Kingdom very well for more than 60 years, and there have been some gross inaccurancies being bandied about by those in the USA who don't like Obama's reforms. If it is true that 50 million Americans do not have access to health care insurance, and therefore no proper healthcare, then that is a disgrace. The NHS is a model that could be emulated by many other nations. I agree that it has a propensity towards costliness, but on the whole, it is geared towards those without the means of paying for their own private healthcare.
Ah ... good and bad in everything Guido. There's that. I'm not opposed to change at all. We need 'something'. But I think we need to take smaller, not baby, but smaller steps over a gradual period of time to get there.
ReplyDeleteBut then, who am I? lol
Yes, I've heard the NHS given praise by British friends and with the puppet-clown we have for a President now I'm anxious to copy ANY model that's been shown to work.
ReplyDeleteI've an English ex-pat friend in San Francisco who says that media reporting in the US about this story is highly biased against the NHS system. There are, apparently, very few soundbites from supporters.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand what all the fuss is about. I certainly wouldn't want to pay $2-3k per month for health insurance cover (which would by default have pre-existing conditions excluded), or to pay 20% of the cost of any treatment (even with insurance) - an appendix op is likely to cost around $40k. My friend knows of several instances where US insurance companies have cancelled someone's policy when they've been diagnosed with a serious condition.
The NHS is fantastic. OK it creaks at the edges a bit, and is a nightmare of bureaucracy when it comes to waiting lists and 'adjusted' appointments in order to meet performance targets. And the disconnect between NHS Scotland and the rest of the UK is a patient's nightmare I've recently encountered at first hand, but I won't hold it against them!
Often I think the patient comes last in the list of NHS priorities, but on the whole we are *extremely* fortunate in this country to have free healthcare for all, regardless of ability to pay, and that is a cause for celebration.