Certainly there are problems with the NHS. I defy you to find any business or institution the size of the British National Health Service that doesn't have some problems, regardless of whether it's run by the government or private companies. There's problems with bureacracy, lack of funding, people making the wrong decisions. There are people who can't get the medication they need from the NHS because it's too expensive, or who have to wait in huge queues for treatment.
But you know what? Many of those things are so rare in the UK that they make the national news.
Yes, we pay. The money for the NHS doesn't come out of nowhere. But people who can't afford to pay taxes still get free treatment (unlike medical insurance). And people who do pay taxes (and "national insurance") pay (I believe, and certainly the post above suggests) an awful lot less than Americans tend to pay to insurance companies.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 04:49 pm (UTC)Certainly there are problems with the NHS. I defy you to find any business or institution the size of the British National Health Service that doesn't have some problems, regardless of whether it's run by the government or private companies. There's problems with bureacracy, lack of funding, people making the wrong decisions. There are people who can't get the medication they need from the NHS because it's too expensive, or who have to wait in huge queues for treatment.
But you know what? Many of those things are so rare in the UK that they make the national news.
Yes, we pay. The money for the NHS doesn't come out of nowhere. But people who can't afford to pay taxes still get free treatment (unlike medical insurance). And people who do pay taxes (and "national insurance") pay (I believe, and certainly the post above suggests) an awful lot less than Americans tend to pay to insurance companies.