Apparently, Brits angry with right-wing Americans' lies and distortions of health care

[notyoueither]

REALLYYYYY???????

I am seeing a lot of irrational folks chanting stuff like

"Government is a cancer not an answer" and the level of rhetoric and the number of people turning this into a patriotism issue is amazing

Big medecine in the US or somebody has done a great job in convincing a lot of people that somehow a universal healthcare system is inconsistent with American values.

Hell I know the Canadian system has its flaws too but Americans seem to think adopting elements of our system will destroy america

And the reverse is true here.

Discuss insurance for health care (even GB has insurance as an option) and the chorus will scream AMERICAN!

Discuss private, for profit delivery (just about every OECD country allows this, or relies on it) and the chorus will scream AMERICAN!

Try to discuss ways we could improve access and provide better care that do not involve throwing buckets of cash down the same old gopher holes and people will ask you why you want an American system.

Our healthcare system is a major plank in the platform that makes us 'not American.' As such, there is at least as much irrational angst north of the 49th as south of it. I would say a bit more.

[notyoueither]

Healthcare reform in Canada is the political third rail.

Not just in Canada, apparently.

Yeah. It's quite a show.

[Ben Kenobi]

Well said NYE.

[Blaupanzer]

Always a surprise to those who set up orchestrated events to have people show up who are not in agreement.

[Drake Tungsten]

British columnist: America needs government-run healthcare because Medicare is worse than the NHS...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/david-millward/6027945/Daniel-Hannan-is-wrong-about-the-NHS-America-has-it-much-worse.html

[Dauphin]

Well played by the Tories.

It's a highly publicised story that gets everyone to think that the Tories are fully in favour of the NHS. It negates any attacks by Labour in the next year before the election that would seek to imply, directly or indirectly, the opposite.

[chequita guevara]

I might misunderstand the numbers, my understanding is that per capita they spend 1/2 of what we spend (% wise of income).

Also, my understanding is that only 2/3 of Americans are covered.

So to cover all Americans we would have to spend 3x what they do (% wise of income).

If they spent that much, the problems due to lack of funding would disappear.

JM

It's 5/6s of Americans, but many who have coverage effectively don't. It's either crappy and barely pays anything or they get dropped as soon as they start costing more than is profitable. Don't know what those numbers are, probably pretty high.

[Straybow]

"Government is a cancer not an answer" and the level of rhetoric and the number of people turning this into a patriotism issue is amazing

Big medecine in the US or somebody has done a great job in convincing a lot of people that somehow a universal healthcare system is inconsistent with American values.

Hell I know the Canadian system has its flaws too but Americans seem to think adopting elements of our system will destroy america

When libs in government want to take over, it IS a cancer. "Big medicine" doesn't have to do a thing to convince most Americans, they already know it.

If this were an actual debate, and were about adopting elements derived from other systems that might work in the US, you'd have a point. Instead, we have a POS legislation from Madame DaFarge and her cronies.

[chequita guevara]

Except the lack of debate comes from the right, and Madame LaFarge in this case is Glenn Beck. Own Goal!

[Drake Tungsten]

"The time for talk is through." - President Obama, talking to liberal bloggers on a conference call on July 20th.

[chequita guevara]

Well, we've been talking since Teddy Roosevelt was running on the Bull Moose ticket.

[Straybow]

Fix Medicare and Social Security first. When that gets straightened, maybe then Americans will think the government can be trusted with running a larger chunk of our health care and managing a single-payer system.