Good post. I am a Brit so in a respect take my healthcare for granted.
I mean of course we pay as well. We pay through our taxes and national insurance payments, however we will always get treated and have no extra sudden cost added in. If you are not working, on benefits you will get the same treatment too. There is no extra benefit to being wealthy when using the NHS. Everyone is treated the same. Naturally people who can afford private healthcare will use that as well. It is their choice. The NHS is not perfect of course. They are always problems somewhere along the line and dentist treatment on the NHS can be a joke at times. Most people stay private for dental treatment, I do but there is good plans out there! But the main gist of your point is interesting. Calling it the health care of socialism creates these terrible images in the heads of some Americans because of apparent associations with communism! It is a scare tactic of course and like you say, socialised medicine is not socialism. It is something for a civilised society.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 04:19 pm (UTC)I mean of course we pay as well. We pay through our taxes and national insurance payments, however we will always get treated and have no extra sudden cost added in. If you are not working, on benefits you will get the same treatment too. There is no extra benefit to being wealthy when using the NHS. Everyone is treated the same. Naturally people who can afford private healthcare will use that as well. It is their choice.
The NHS is not perfect of course. They are always problems somewhere along the line and dentist treatment on the NHS can be a joke at times. Most people stay private for dental treatment, I do but there is good plans out there!
But the main gist of your point is interesting. Calling it the health care of socialism creates these terrible images in the heads of some Americans because of apparent associations with communism! It is a scare tactic of course and like you say, socialised medicine is not socialism. It is something for a civilised society.