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What say you?
When you make a wild statement without looking at the background you do your readers a disservice. I don't particularly want to weigh-in on how Americans handle their medical services, but the story about the man being refused treatment in his eye misses important background information that anybody would need to draw a proper conclusion. The man was absolutely NOT refused treatment. In the UK, if we are ill, we get treatment, I promise you. He was a refused a particular drug that the health authority in his area had not yet cleared for full use for various reasons. Now you may disagree with their decision (many do) or you may not, but saying he was not *treated* is unfair and incorrect.
Furthermore, back when medicine was totally socialised in the UK that would not have happened. The denial of the drug is a consequence of an attempt to reintroduce markets in medicine in the UK. Now, each area authority handles its own finances and policies. This has led to a "post code lottery" where you might get lucky and find a drug is approved that you'd like to get a hold of, or you might not, depending on which authority controls your medical care. Its not ideal, but thats because its in a transitional stage. But if we are ill, we get care. And there's no bill to pay afterwards, ever. Plus, if we do get prescribed a drug, or a series of drugs, we pay only one single small payment for our prescription, regardless of what the drug is or how many of them there are. I don't like socialists or socialism. Im involved in politics here and Im on the centre-right. But discarding *all* ideas simply because you think they may have socialist connotations is, frankly, dumb.
I appreciate your input Steve!
I'd just like to point out, that to incorporate actual "markets," you would have to eliminate the "area authorit[ies]" that make these decisions for others, so the problem remains as one of socialism. And while there may be no "bill to pay" in the UK, the health care is far from free.
In the U.S., we have quasi-government run health care. Other than our failing schools, nothing in the U.S. gets more government (taxpayer) dollars, or has more Rube Goldberg regulations than health care. Again, a failure of socialism.