http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8200817.stm

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said:



Has Bratty turned to political sound bite writing? I think we should be told

Since when have the British population been patriotic? If you decided to even think of wearing a St. Georges cross either as a badge or flag etc and you're immediately labelled a racist/fascist/neo-nazi.

Britain has always been about "quiet patriotism". We don't need to shout about it like the Americans do, our record often speaks for itself.

Exactly.

I'm bloody proud of our country, but I don't need to fly flags in my garden, or ram it down foreigners' throats.

This argument has at least shown the true colours of a lot of the Tory Party. What ever Cameron says, many Tories hate the NHS and what it stands for.

The argument in America is all about money. "Health Care" is a huge business there and has many vested interests attached. However the "math" is simple. If a heart by-pass costs £20,000 then if you have to add a profit (say 10%) then it costs £22,000 all other things being equal.

The profit motive is not relevant in all spheres of human life, only the less important ones. Soldiers (for example) are brave and do their jobs not to make a profit, but out of committment, the same applies to many Doctors, Teachers and other "Public" workers....

Seconded.

Anyone who is not proud of the NHS should go live in America for a while. Not saying it's perfect, it could be approved upon. That said at least we don't have to be worried about getting a huge bill if we get cancer or hit by a bus, and can concentrate on getting well. I would recommend watching Sicko by Michael Moore, yes it's biased in areas, but you will be very patriotic towards the NHS.

The thing is.. America already pretty much has the equivelant of our NHS. As well. Something like 48m Americans have no health insurance and thus get emergency and vital care without insurance and given they're the poorest, it's quite unlikely they'll be paying afterwards. That's more or less the equivalent of the population of the UK (which is around 53-54M I think). So the Americans not only have a massive private medical establishment, they also are actually doing most of what our NHS is doing anyway. The idea that the Americans aren't spending whalloping great sums of money on healthcare which isn't privately funded is proveably false.
All the idiot republicans who are complaining that their taxes shouldn't be paying for the medical care of people they consider to be shirkers - get a clue, you're already doing it.

Jon

Nonsense. You're arguement is contradictory, you say that and then say they get emergency and vital care, we get a sight more than that with the NHS. I'm not saying we're not heading down the same route as the USA but to suggest we're even close to the dreadful standards as America is ludicrous.

Indeed, with the NHS non-essential care is bundled in too. I don't "need" to have these nasal polyps removed, but the NHS is doing it gratis anyway. Thank you very much to myself and every other UK taxpayer for the privilege. Also thanks to UK taxpayers for keeping me alive through subsidised asthma medication.

Actually, 'most' of the NHS is not doing emergency and vital care.

Can't remember the figures but in the NHS, you get:

- emergency medical care (only free thing in US)
- non-emergency medical care (eg hip replacements, non-emergency bypass operations)
- allied health professional care (chiropodists, physiotherapy, dentistry etc)
- social care (occupational therapy, care packages etc)

at the very least.

I know the NHS subsidise dentistry, but do they really also do chiropodists etc? Everyone I know who has seen one has paid for the privilege, is it also subsidised?

clicky



'most areas' is the key phrase here.

Oooooh, this can go in the "something new I learned today" thread.

I think the NHS is brilliant.

I think the tory party suck!

They just resent paying taxes to keep the poor alive. They're happy with their BUPA programme thanks, so let the poor die. It's the same in the US, and it's pretty f*cked up.

Got it in one Nick.