Posted: Apr 21, 2017 2:51 pm
The Bevin vs Bismarck model thing is a red herring. Both can achieve good outcomes, when properly funded and administered. I read a study somewhere that said countries with a government run/Bevin model tended to have slightly higher financial efficiency (due to the massive bargaining power of any organisation as large as the NHS), but those with a social insurance/Bismarck model tended to achieve slightly better health outcomes (can't remember why).
The problem in the UK is that everybody knows full well if the change to a private insurance based model is instituted and managed by the tories, it won't be like Germany or Dutch land, it'll be the USA on steroids. It will be devised with one purpose only which will be to direct as much money as possible to the rich, and a judgment will be made about what proportion of the poor can be left to die because they don't vote or the tories don't need their votes.
I'm not ideologically attached to the idea of a government-run NHS, but when Corbyn talks about it with no compromise towards the private sector I support him, because I know these (UK-style NHS or USA-style fuck-the-poor "free" market) are the only two actual options. Britain isn't mature or enlightened enough yet for anything in between.
Yet another respect in which the class system poisons everything at the very root of British society.
The problem in the UK is that everybody knows full well if the change to a private insurance based model is instituted and managed by the tories, it won't be like Germany or Dutch land, it'll be the USA on steroids. It will be devised with one purpose only which will be to direct as much money as possible to the rich, and a judgment will be made about what proportion of the poor can be left to die because they don't vote or the tories don't need their votes.
I'm not ideologically attached to the idea of a government-run NHS, but when Corbyn talks about it with no compromise towards the private sector I support him, because I know these (UK-style NHS or USA-style fuck-the-poor "free" market) are the only two actual options. Britain isn't mature or enlightened enough yet for anything in between.
Yet another respect in which the class system poisons everything at the very root of British society.