#welovethenhs - My humble opinion
So i thought I would wade in with my few thoughts on the healthcare debate.
Before I start I will admit that while I don’t know the intricacies of the US system, I did live in the US for a couple of years, and was stung repeatedly by Doctors, Dentists and Nurses. I then spent a couple of years in Holland and experienced their form of universal healthcare. Also, of course, as a brit i know the NHS inside and out, it’s good points, and yes it’s bad.
The loud and vitriolic ranting against Obama-care can, I believe, be split into two distinct camps. There are those who don’t understand the plans, and those who get it, but don’t support it.
The first group, those that don’t get it, seem to be receiving the most coverage in the press. From “death panels” to the terrible state of the NHS, misinformation seems to reign supreme. Fuelled by right-wing media, these completely natural fears are being exacerbated and mutated into an almost unstoppable belief that the entire US will lost their quality healthcare and all end up with a sub-standard, state-run socialised medicine.
The answer to this is simple, it’s not for everyone, its’ for people who can’t afford healthcare. If you have great healthcare, you will keep great healthcare. If you don’t then you will now be covered in some way, regardless of your ability to pay.
The comparisons to the NHS are moot. There are many people in the UK who have private healthcare, many employers who offer this as a perk. They don’t have waiting lists and they have private wards. Also, because there is a safety net below them in the form of the NHS, costs are less than in the US, and they propensity to deny coverage seems to be less. A universal healthcare model will only really punish the pockets of the politicians and lobbyists with connections to the pharmaceutical industry.
This brings me to the second group, those that completely understand the proposals but are against it. I can count some personal friends in this group, yet I could never be in it. The argument against seems to be thus: “Why should I work hard, get insurance, then have to pay for other people to get covered?” The classic right vs left debate. It is with this that I take umbrage. Let us take me as an example. I work for a major corporation, in their online advertising space. I receive a good salary, and get healthcare. Why should I have to fund the healthcare of the poor, the uninsured and the skill-less?
Well, one of the reasons why I can earn the money I do, and have access to the things I need is because of the society I live in, and the infrastructure that supports it. The success (of whatever level) that I can attain is propped up by housing, transport, sustenance, policing, power, heating, light, clean streets amongst many, many other things. In all these industries there are lower paid workers. There are transient farm workers, street cleaners, clothing makers, bus drivers, food packers, steel workers, trash men to name a tiny, tiny few. Without these people I would not be able to get to work, have the strength to work, have the power and lighting to work, and therefore earn the money that I do. Is it then too much to ask me to give a tiny, tiny proportion of it to cover the health-costs of those who support me and enable me to live the life i lead?
This is the society we have in the UK, and the US. It is this infrastructure that gives us the chance to make the money we do. We should be grateful to this and when a reasonable ask is made of us, whether it is to feed, clothe or treat a member of our society, remember it is in the benefit of all of us that we should help out. If that means rolling out a universal healthcare plan to insure the forgotten members of a society, then so be it. We all benefit in the end.
But that’s just what I think
