Letter: US healthcare system versus the NHS
Monday 21st March 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: Councillor Barrow advocates an “American-style” system of health care where medical facilities are fully available on “the high street”; he unfortunately fails to understand the differences in our two systems of health care provision.
“American-style” provides the perfect solution to those with adequate health care insurance, or those with ample wealth; the rest, the vast majority, are subject to what is available.
In Great Britain, an NHS ambulance, taking you to an NHS hospital, and being treated by NHS professionals, provides emergency services, regardless of who you are.
In America the first thing they check is your health care insurance, then your credit card – then they summon the appropriate ambulance. In the UK they just want to save a life.
Further, at a time when the RSH trust faces cuts to services amounting to millions of pounds, Councillor Barrow extols the virtue of a “new hospital” to be built “somewhere” between Shrewsbury and Telford.
Perhaps he should direct more of his financial ability to finding a small sum of money to save all our local schools threatened with closure, thus protecting the rural communities that are so vitally important to Shropshire, and leave the NHS to the professionals.
Peter Sayles
Oswestry
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Cuts, are you sure?
http://yorkshireconservatives.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/poster_small.jpg?w=600&h=300
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No, you’ve got it all wrong.
You should be saying “We are entering a new, exciting era, driven by the forthcoming healthcare reform that will ultimately change, to our benefit, the landscape in which we operate.” Or at least you would be if you were CEO of General Healthcare Group. And if you were part of General Healthcare you’d be saying things like “GHG believes that the Government should “incentivise people to pay directly for healthcare themselves,”". You’d also say things like the NHS is “one of the largest and most attractive healthcare markets globally.” You’d also have no conflict of interest in lobbying/joining the Conservatives to get your mitts on NHS cash through the likes of Sir Peter Gershon & Adrian Fawcett and the H5 lobbying/advisor group which is linked to the LibDems through Mihir Magudia.
See, you’ve got it wrong – ‘liberating’ the NHS is a good thing for private firms, lobbyists, politicians. It might not be good for *your* health, but you look woolly enough for a fleecing.
So, now you know what you’re up against !
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Peter – I have lived in the US for 45 years – We get excellent health care and anyone without insurance is never denyed care. Please get your facts right.
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My aunty lives in Boston and they most certainly do check Insurance first, even with children. My father visited last year and unfortunately need emergency care. Payment was the hospitals biggest concern.
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Healthcare might be great in the USA, but it’s only great for those with money or the right insurance.
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