Brits are becoming increasingly alarmed and astonished at the lies being told about their National Health System. A sampling —
“Americans should put their own health care in order” (Mike Ponton, Wales Online).
“Britons rally to defend their healthcare system” (Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times).
“In the US, my credit card saved my life” (Mitch Glickstein, The Guardian).
[Update: “‘We were duped’: Two British women tricked into becoming stars of campaign to sabotage Obama’s healthcare reforms” (Daily Mail)]
We here are used to it, of course. Nothing positive happens in the U.S. without quickly being smothered by a fog of crazy. But I think the Brits are genuinely shocked. They hadn’t fully appreciated how crazy The Crazy gets here.
I was going to write a longer piece about the fog of crazy, but fortunately Rick Perlstein has a piece in tomorrow’s Washington Post called “In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition” that pretty much says everything I was going to say.
Update: “Healthcare paranoia is part of America’s culture war” (Edward Luce, Financial Times)
I forced myself to listen to Malkin this morning – confession, I couldn’t make it through the whole thing – and like reducing to what’s left in a pan when you boil down its contents, the sum and substance of her rant was lefties are demons out to take the country away from god-fearing, law-abiding, church-going, loyal Americans – and finally, extremely dangerous.
It isn’t a matter of merely discrediting the people whose ideas are contrary to theirs, they must be seen as agents of the devil, the personification of evil who will literally possess you should you let down your guard.
Crazy? You bet.
Amen-I get sick of the idea that it isn’t enough to disagree with people, you have to demonize them if they don’t agree with you. I sincerely hope that Michelle Malkin and her family never find themselves in a position where they lose all the resources they take for granted. I also get tired of the wingnuts accusing liberals and progressives of demonizing them when the wingnuts are engaging in projection, as is usual for them.
This subject has been the top news story the last few days. The Tories are really on the defensive after one of their MEPs dissed the NHS on Fox News–it really is political suicide here to even hint at changing the system. Sort of like it is in the US, no?
KathyF,
At least they have a health care system over there. We have a Wealth Care system. If you have ‘weatlh’, we ‘care’ for you. If you ain’t got none, well, “Best of health to you and yours…” You’ll need it.
The Tories are really on the defensive after one of their MEPs dissed the NHS on Fox News …
Indeed. Galling as these lies have been, they’ve had an unintended effect that could be interesting in the run-up to the election. Plenty of things are being said at the moment that can be quoted back at both parties when it comes to the hustings.
One of the interesting things about the #WeLoveTheNHS hashtag has been the number of people who will willingly and honestly acknowledge that there are shortcomings in the NHS – nothing like the wild smears that the anti-reform lobby have been spouting, fo course – while strongly defending its existence and those things it does get right much more often than not.
Comparing the NHS to any likely US healthcare reform is in any case obviously a red herring – closer parallels might end up being Canada, France, or any of the other systems that have different ways to address the public/private division. Single payer in the US – even if it ever came about – would not resemble the NHS. Why did they choose the NHS as their whipping boy?
The danger for the NHS isn’t that some idiotic and suicidal political party will abolish it wholesale, but that the over-managerialization, and creeping privatization in search of cost-paring (that has contributed, among other things, to the incidence of MRSA) in the service – which the British perceive as costly, but is far less inefficient than the US system, for instance – will be used to justify more of the same, rather than restructuring to allow more funds to go to primary care and carers, and a national re-evaluation of priorities that spends less of our taxes on foreign adventurism and more on people, the very fabric of society.
It could eventually go the way of the dental service if we’re not vigilant, and anyone who lives here will know of people who’ve been unable to find an NHS dentist who will take them on their books. Once registered, the quality of care, in my experience, is superb, but the warnings there are plain to see.
I always smile a little sourly when I hear about Euros being shocked.
They think us strange and foolish for the lack of social programs etc. but they do not understand the way the politics exist over here. Well now they will, and let’s see if they do any better against it than we do.