I'm not sure what the etiquette is for republishing diaries but I've been advised to do so this time round so I'm throwing caution to the wind and republishing this one from a week or so ago. Mostly because the one I'm trying to write right now is stuck in writer's block land :( ...
Aplogies for length.
Here in the UK, where we already have universal coverage ‘from cradle to grave’ thanks to our marvellous single payer National Health Service public attention has been tuned to the health care reform debate State-side. In recent days it’s been having a big impact here on the cut and thrust of party politics. The NHS has even become a cause celebre on twitter and in much of the British Press. With the conservative party leader and even the right wing papers eager to be seen on the side of public opinion.
In this diary I’ll explain why I think that’s relevant to the health care debate in the US, despite the glaring differences between the single-payer NHS and the best case scenario of the US plan; a public option.
Let’s start with a bit of background information just to get you up to speed.
A number of events caused us, the great British public, to sit up and take notice of the American health care reform ‘debate’ Although that’s a rather generous word for much of the sheer lunacy and outright corruption and astroturfing that’s characterised it.
Previously, the images of the town hall meetings; with people shouting incoherently about ‘Nazis’ and ‘death panels’ were somewhat diverting, but not enough to get the average Brit to take much notice. America was after all the nation of McCarthyism and the nation that voted for George W Bush twice. The fact of a rabid, Christian fundamentalist, free-market worshipping right wing and their legions of brain dead yet admirably loyal followers was nothing new. America and Britain are after all ‘two countries separated by a common language.’ Britons, and Europeans as a whole, understand that the American political landscape is situated far to the right of ours; that all but your left-most democrats are akin to our centrist-conservatives, our popular left-wing governments seen as dangerous-commies by much of American mainstream opinion. As least in so far as it’s represented by the American media and much of your political classes.
So whilst we watched the town hall craziness with a mixture of wry bemusement and sympathy for the sensible America that voted for Obama. We did so with a sense of detachment. American health care was an American domestic issue. They’d be fools not to reform, but it wouldn’t be the first time America had acted foolishly, and it certainly wasn’t up to us here in Europe to stick our noses in too much.
There was speculation over what kind of plan Obama could get passed, speculation over whether these foaming at the mouth imbeciles represented anyone other than themselves, speculation over whether the vested interests in America could be made to concede any of their profit margins. All this speculation however, was confined to the opinion pages of the broadsheet newspapers and late night current affairs programmes like BBC’s ‘Newsnight.’ A matter for discussion for those with an interest in politics and world affairs, but not a subject you’d bring up in everyday conversation.
Then a few things happened.
First ‘Investor’s Business Daily’ claimed renowned physicist Stephen Hawking would have been deemed ‘worthless’ and denied treatment under the British NHS. I’m sure you all know by now that Hawking is in fact very much British, lives and works in Britain (he’s got Isaac Newton’s old job at Cambridge; ‘Lucasian Professor of Mathematics’) and credits the NHS with providing him with excellent life-saving care.
Here’s Nuisance’s Industry’s dairy on the subject.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Meanwhile various Republicans and their spokespeople in the American media were busy spreading out right lies about the NHS. Presumably in the mistaken belief that the internet and aeroplanes hadn’t yet been invented and no one would call them out on their bullshit.
Then Daniel Hannan, a conservative member of the European Parliament with all the political and intellectual weight of a rotting herring whored himself to the Glenn Beck show to, as Lord Mandelson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mandelson) described it; ‘slag off’ the NHS.
Now, Hannan has apparently written for the Torygraph (AKA the Telegraph newspaper) from time to time and is said to have something of a cult-following amongst the far-right wing of the Tory rank and file. But he’s not a well known figure, certainly not one with any claim to represent mainstream public opinion in the UK. We won’t bother to dwell on him too long, like Canadian-Brain-Cyst woman he’s a spectacularly unrepresentative, dishonest, self aggrandizing irrelevancy given a public platform by the opponents of healthcare reform for the simple reason that they couldn’t find anyone more credible. The fact they got an MEP on the Glenn Beck show is a pretty good indication that they couldn’t get any MPs to agree to go on it. The reason for this is straight forward. MPs are elected on a first past the post basis and can’t afford to alienate the majority of their electorate. MEPs are elected by proportional representation, in elections that have low turn-outs and can get a seat with only 30% of votes in an election with only a 22% turn-out, which is how the racist BNP thug Nick Griffin got elected to the European Parliament. Daniel Hannan got around 200,000 votes and was elected along with 10 others to represent South East England. To put that in to context the Green party, hardly a big hitter in UK politics polled around 270,000 votes for each MEP for the South East region that they gained in the same election.
Never mind the numbers though, statistics are tricky things. Let’s look at what Mr. Hannan had to say for himself.
He told Glenn Beck that he ‘would not wish the NHS on anyone’ a bit of reading between the lines is needed here. What he should have said, to clear up any misunderstanding is this;
"As a right wing politician with no sense of solidarity and no concern whatsoever for the working and middle classes in my country I abhor the NHS. I watch as my Republican counterparts in the US get wealthy taking lobbyist bribes from your for-profit health industry and I wish I could get on board that immoral gravy train and line my pockets whilst the poor suffer too.’
Hannan may however make one genuine criticism of the NHS. They have so far been unable to cure his very rare disease; that of being a complete self-serving prat with a very shiny head.
And then...
The great British public took notice.
You see, we love our NHS, and by ‘we’ I mean the vast majority. The NHS polls approval ratings that politicians would kill for. It polls a lot higher with people who regularly use it than with those who don’t. Most of those who experience NHS care speak very highly of it, including Kezia Obama. Barack’s stepmother: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/...
Just take a look at the Twitter campaign started by @Glinner (Graham Lineham creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd and co-writer on the first series of black books) if you’re on Twitter just search for the hashtag #welovethenhs
We know it’s not perfect. It was founded in 1948 after the horrors and deprivations of WWII. By a Labour government determined to not only rebuild Britain but to build for it a New Jerusalem of increased social equality where the spectres of poverty and lack of access to healthcare would be vanquished. Much of their utopian dreams have yet to be realised; the gap between rich and poor here, as in the US, is ever widening and unemployment is growing at an alarming rate thanks to the current recession. But one thing they did achieve, and for which us British will always be thankful is the National Health Service.
The NHS is the ‘Jewel in the crown’ of the British welfare state. Like all institutions it has its flaws; it’s suffered lack of investment under Tory governments and encroaching privatization by New Labour. It’s a huge, cumbersome thing. The largest employer in Europe, caring for the health of 60 million people, of course it’s not perfect. What is in this world of ours? Of course there are good arguments to be made for small reforms here and there. Should patient records be on a computer data-base? Should Doctors be limited in the number of hours they can work? Should expensive yet ineffective cancer drugs be paid for at tax-payers expense?
But these are all decisions which will be made with a few fundamental principles always adhered to;
In the UK the NHS is here to stay, and it covers everyone. Health care is free at the point of use and is paid for mainly through taxation.
That’s the way it’s been for over 60 years. That’s the way we like it. The NHS has looked after us for decades. Most of us know people who work in it; most of us know people who wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the professionalism and dedication of NHS staff. The NHS is a sacred cow of UK politics, a uniquely British way of running a health service that we are incredibly proud of. Perhaps we’re a little too loyal to it; perhaps there are arguments to be made for some privatisation leading to better outcomes in other countries, although I for one would be opposed to such measures as a step down the slippery slope to American style for-profit health-care.
And I’m not alone. Whilst Republicans try to scare people with a totally distorted and misleading portrayal of the NHS as an example of evil socialised medicine (never mind that in 2000 the UK was ranked #19 by the world health organisation, fair enough since we were also #19 in terms of GDP spent on health care, whilst America ranked #37, just above Slovenia and ranked #1 by a huge margin on the GDP spending scale.) Labour politicians over here are presenting Daniel Hannan’s remarks to Glenn Beck as proof of a secret Conservative party plot to dismantle the NHS.
David Cameron responded by distancing himself from Hannan;
See ultraviolet’s diary here http://www.dailykos.com/...
Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown jumped on board the Twitter campaign
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Yesterday, I had some emails in my inbox from the Labour party (I’m a member) alleging a secret conservative agenda to destroy the NHS.
So you get the picture, British politicians are falling over themselves to pledge their allegiance to the NHS and its founding principles. Their sincerity or otherwise I shall leave to one side. The key thing here is that they’re playing to their audience;
Politicians say what they think the voters want to hear. When Cameron and Brown are both waxing lyrical about how they love the NHS it doesn’t take a genius to work out that British people as a whole love the NHS.
Similarly when Brown accuses Cameron of wanting to Americanize our healthcare and Cameron responds with angry denials it’s made abundantly clear that far from being the envy of the world. American health care is feared by many. What if I get sick and I can’t afford treatment? Is not a question British people want to be asking themselves in the future.
Why is this relevant to the American healthcare debate despite the glaring differences between single-payer and a public option?
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
The UK represents for the vested interests campaigning against health care reform an old battleground strewn with the charred remains of their fallen British comrades.
No British government since 1948 has dared to seriously threaten the NHS. Even Thatcher promised it would be safe under her rule. Churchill swore to defend it and uphold its principles despite having campaigned against its inception.
The Right wing and the vested interests have claimed this will be Obama’s Waterloo. We know better; this will be their undoing.
When health-reform is passed it will benefit millions, whilst their outlandish scare tactics will be exposed as just that. They will lose all credibility and any hold they now have on the middle ground of American politics. The blood sucking vampires who put profit above health care will crumble to dusty irrelevance in the glare of tomorrow’s dawn when the light of reality shines on them.
As Bill Clinton explains http://gripernews.blogspot.com/... Obama will be feted as a Hero. He’s right to say he’ll stake his presidency on this. However much misinformation is out there, once the public option is in place it will be untouchable. Like Medicaid, Veteran’s health care and social security it will be a fact of the political landscape for conservatives to lump or like. They won't get to line their pockets quite so much, and you'll get to have near universal coverage. Trust me, it's going to be marvellous!
So enjoy the spectacle of those Town hall crazies whilst you can, they’re the last of a dying breed.