August 14 2012
Dear Carol Jo,
This morning we woke up to the news that Mitt Romney has chosen Paul Ryan as his running mate. His choice does not make us sleep soundly at nights. The thought that he might be a heartbeat away from the world’s most powerful job is even more frightening than the thought that Mitt Romney might be the President.
The next thing we heard is that Paul Ryan is holding up our National Health Service as an example of all that is bad about Europe and he claims that the NHS proves that Obama’s health scheme is a bad idea.
Now I work for the British healthcare regulator. I feel that I must contradict Mr Ryan. The main thing wrong with the NHS is that it is under-funded by our Government which is afraid to raise enough tax to do the job properly. This leads to waiting lists for non-urgent treatments. If it was properly funded (say 10% more than the present expenditure), the waiting lists would be solved and the NHS would still be much cheaper than the US healthcare system per head of population. The principle of universal healthcare works just fine; politicians of both right and the left agree on this. If the NHS was funded by compulsory insurance instead of tax (like Germany does it), it would be great. By contrast, US healthcare is the most expensive in the world but fails to reach a large minority of the population, and this is a direct result of allowing the insurance and pharmacological industries to run healthcare.
Even with its limitations, the NHS is a shining example to the USA. The German system is even better.
I heard that Republicans have said that the British hate the NHS. I’ve never met any Brit who said that.
The truth is, we love our NHS, even while we grumble that it is under-funded. The NHS started when I was a child and has looked after me ever since. As I have grown older, I have had a lot of expensive treatment which was free to me. I never had anything that wasn’t essential, and I didn’t have luxury accommodation in hospital, but when I needed the NHS, it was there for me.
Paul Ryan says that the NHS encourages dependency. This is obvious nonsense. You could argue that childcare payments encourage teenage pregnancy; you could argue that unemployment payments encourage idleness; but you can’t seriously suggest that universal healthcare encourages people to get sick or old.
I don’t think anyone here will feel insulted by Paul Ryan’s words. We are accustomed to US politicians who are ignorant of the world outside the USA. But we are angry that he is spreading lies for political gain. He claims that European successes are failures!
US citizens need to understand that the USA is the country with the big problem, not Britain. Britain, like most other civilised countries, has universal healthcare. It’s not perfect, but it works. The USA does not have universal healthcare, and it has great difficulty working out how to move from the present expensive mess to something better. There are good examples in Europe of how to do it better and cheaper.
Paul Ryan is trying to frighten US voters with the phrase “European style Socialism”. “Socialism” isn’t a word we use much, because it can mean whatever you want it to mean, from a minimal concern for welfare to state tyranny. We in Europe argue over how much the government should intervene to prevent poverty, but we find the discussions go better when we avoid vague terms like “Socialism”.
Finally, why should any US voter listen to a Brit? Well, you elect them and we have to put up with them blundering around the world for 4 years. We suffer the consequences of your votes. I just want you to elect someone who doesn’t blunder. Obama would be my choice, if I had a choice.
Warmest regards,
Peter
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