Posts Tagged ‘Britain’
In the News
February 2, 2010Learn from Britain’s Mistakes: Don’t Centralize Health Care in Washington
To understand the dangers of a government takeover of health care, America should study Britain’s system, which exemplifies the shortcomings of heavily regulated, nationalized health care. A recent report by Robin Harris of the Heritage Foundation outlines the deterioration of Britain’s health care system due to years of liberal health policy marked by heavy concentration of power, higher taxes and the proliferation of rules and restrictions by the National Health Service (NHS).
The NHS is Britain’s government-run health care system. It acts as a single-payer system which originated with the nationalization of thousands of Britain’s hospitals. According to Harris, this “centralized, single-payer health service, free at the point of consumption, was an ideal prescription for waste, rationing by queues, and inordinate public expenditure.”
The woes caused by the NHS are multitudinous. As a result of the long waits to receive care, patients have instead begun to purchase treatment themselves, even going abroad to receive care. Access and quality of care are low, and rationing of services has led to discrimination against the elderly. As with any government-run system, more wealthy citizens have a higher level of mobility within the system, and are more able to obtain a higher quality of care than others. It is thus that the NHS has led to increased inequality in care received by Britons. (more…)
Tags: Britain, centralized decision making, Gordon Brown, National Health Service, Tony Blair
Quick Fact
September 9, 2009Fact Checking the White House: Two Major Reforms Conservatives Support
America’s health care system is one-sixth of the entire economy—larger than Britain’s. Restructuring something that large and complex in one massive bill rammed through Congress is a fool’s errand. There are bound to be major problems. Instead, we must incrementally reform health care in stages, by letting the 50 states act as laboratories for solutions. Let’s find out what works and doesn’t. Two major reforms already have broad support and can move us forward.
1) Give states more freedom from federal rules to experiment with reform measures, like medical malpractice reform and allowing people to buy insurance across state lines.
2) Fix the tax treatment of health insurance in a budget-neutral way so that people can buy it outside of their workplace. That way, you would no longer lose your health coverage if you change or lose your job, just as you wouldn’t lose your car or life insurance.
View our other videos fact checking the White House.
Tags: Britain, medical malpractice, portable insurance, state health reform
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Key Documents
- Congressional Research Service Memorandum to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
- Letter from Senators Enzi and Coburn to Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius
- Letter to Health and Human Services Sectretary Sebelius from Senators Grassley and Enzi
- Congressional Budget Office letter to Chairman Stark of the Subcommittee on Health
- Proposed Rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the Medicare Program
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