God hates the NHS!

In trying to abolish the National Health Service, Cameron, Clegg and Lansley are only trying to keep us from eternal damnation.

Eh?

Yes, it's true. According to Rick Santorum (you'll like that link), quondam Republican Senate Chair, healthcare leads directly to hell, and government healthcare = dealing crack.

     “Think about how they view you,” he told the crowd of Republicans. “They view you no different than the drug dealer views the little kid in the school yard. They want to get you hooked, they want to get you dependent. They want to get you relying upon them for your wellbeing. And once they’ve satisfied you, giving them that drug, that narcotic, then you’ll be reliant on them and, by the way, you’ll also be less than what God created you to be.”

     The crowd thundered applause. Santorum talked about statistical proof of American exceptionalism — arguing that life expectancy didn’t increase for thousands of years until America was founded, and then it doubled in 200 years — but kept returning to the importance of next year’s election.

     It’s not enough to preach to committed Republicans and conservatives, Santorum said. “You all need to go out and build your own choir, all over this state, so when 2012 rolls around, you are ready to battle for America’s soul. That’s what’s at stake.”

Theologically of course, he's on to something. In the 17th century, Protestants were keen to throw off the collectivist Catholic inheritance which encouraged charity and Good Works as a path to salvation. In its place (and derived from the Renaissance emergence of individuality) was an emphasis on material life as an index of your spiritual health. Taking its cue from these Bible verses (Genesis 1):

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

the Protestants initiated a programme of imperialism and despoliation which has led us to where we are today: massively unequal and environmentally degraded. Plenty of American evangelicals oppose environmentalism on the grounds that a) pollution is part of the End Times or b) God will sort it out, and it's impertinent to interfere and c) earth's here to be bent to our whims, whatever the consequences. Robinson Crusoe is an early and brilliant exposition of this attitude: the island and Man Friday are the planet and its non-Christian inhabitants who exist only for Robinson's use. His spiritual health is measured by the success of his endeavours.

But the healthcare insanity is part of the other legacy of Protestantism: the idea that you should only look after yourself. If you're rich, it's because you've got God's favour. If you're poor, it's because you're spiritually lacking too. So the richer you are, the more likely it is you're going to heaven. Can you see why the Prosperity Churches and Hollywood-loving sects are doing so well? No more guilt, no more charity, just endless selfishness.

So under this theology, citizens getting together to provide healthcare (that's what government does: it's not being imposed by some kind of dictatorship) challenges God because it detracts from the isolated individualism of the 17th century.

What an enlightened philosophy. Unfortunately, health is a bit trickier. No vaccination for one = danger for everyone else, for instance. It's a public good, not something which should be restricted to the Godly Rich. Unless you're poor old Rick, constantly viewing the poor as some kind of conspiratorial Tools of the Devil.

How politics works

This isn't really about political parties - it's political practice:

May 2010:

 "Andrew Lansley has reviewed the latest figures for the number of births across Greater Manchester and today said: 'If I am secretary of state for health after the election, maternity and children's services will be maintained at Fairfield and I will ensure this happens.

 "The choice for voters in Bury North is clear: vote Labour and these services will be axed from Fairfield. Vote Conservative and if there is a Conservative government the maternity department will be kept open." 

March 2011:

Fairfield Hospital closure confirmed by Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary.

I've often wondered if political publicity could be actionable - is it a contract? False advertising?

The view from ER

My fellow blogger Post-Raphaelite Sisterhood has a bad knee.

Unfortunately, she's in America. She has health insurance, which should mean that she's better off than the 45 million Americans who must depend on charity.

But no:

Anyway, finding a physician in Bubba County who would accept a new patient within the week - or the month - wasn't going to happen, but I was able to get an appointment with the nurse practitioner.

I arrived in plenty of time for my 1:30 appointment and took a seat among the dozen or so others waiting.

At about ten past 3 - that's no typo, folks - it was finally my turn to be seen. 

it was determined that an MRI should be had to determine the extent of the damage. I was told that the my insurance company's approval was required and I would get a call when said approval was obtained (or not).

At my follow-up appointment two days ago, the obviously overworked nurse pulled out my chart and found the insurance company's denial form. The MRI was not approved, they said, because there was no diagnosis code on the request. The nurse scanned the forms and said that yes, there was a diagnosis code, and they would resubmit the request. That makes a ten day wait - plus however much longer I'll have to wait while the forms are resubmitted and re-scrutinized.

I've just learned, though, that if I do need to be hospitalized, at least at the same facility (not in Bubba County, TN but in Charlotte, NC) where my boss recently had surgery, I will be asked to bring my own towels and washcloths. I guess nobody told that facility that kind of thing only happens in Cuba, or so say opponents of health-care reform. 

This is what our Tory government intends to bring in. Remember this when they say that businesses are more 'efficient' than the state: this means that they're more efficient when it comes to generating profits, not producing decent services (look at Microsoft: big profits, crap OS).

Greatest country in the world, folks. How depressing. Despite the troubles with the UK's NHS, it's still free and open to all - no penpusher decides whether or not you get treatment depending on their profit margins.

Love your NHS

It's ramshackle and unwieldy, but it's the best and fairest healthcare system in the world - and the Tory / Lib Dem government is ripping it to shreds to feed to the corporations which have done such a marvellous job in America and elsewhere. 

The NHS is the only health system in the industrialised world where wealth does not determine access to care – providing the most widely accessible treatments at low cost among rich nations, a key study has found.

The survey, by US health thinktank the Commonwealth Fund, showed that while one-third of American adults "went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick, or failed to fill prescriptions because of costs", this figure was only 6% in the UK and 5% in Holland.

In all countries except Britain, wealth largely determined access to health, with patients with incomes below the national average more likely to report trouble with medical bills and problems with getting care because of cost.

The NHS was also extremely cost-effective, with spending on health per person almost the lowest in the survey. A person in the UK paid $1,500 less than a person in Switzerland, $600 less than a German and less than half the $7,538 paid by every American for healthcare.

Pass this on, and defend the NHS. 

Careful now!

My parents are doctors, though I've never inquired about their death rates. One thing I have learned, however, is that T S Eliot was wrong. 

April is not the cruellest month: August is (or July in the US). Specifically, Death Week, which starts on Wednesday. Why? Because that's when all the new junior doctors start work, fresh from university/the beach/the pub. 

They know most of the theory (though medical degrees aren't classified, as far as I know, so you don't know whether your doctor passed the exam on your ailment, or scraped a Third or gained a glorious First) but haven't had that much practise on complicated, sick people. And they're tired, dog-tired, from the massive shifts and short naps snatched in knackered armchairs. They don't know anyone and have no idea where everything is, and there's a culture of contempt: quite a lot of senior doctors, surgeons and nurses subscribe to the trail by fire concept and like to see the new bugs struggle - my old mum has some shocking stories about her first year or so.

Mind how you go…

Why Am I A Socialist?

"I won't get out of bed for less than $10k" per day

                                                                  gets people in and out of bed for £10k per year

"This is what change looks like" or "armageddon"

Congratulations to my American readers: you're now going to get a healthcare system which may just help the poor and middle-classes. It's still going to be utterly rubbish compared with the Canadian, UK and European systems (it's not universal or funded through taxation) but in American terms, it's an earthquake because it at leasts hints at the idea that we're collectively responsible for each other (Michael Tomasky has a good piece on the philosophical issues).

Shame on the Democrats who opposed it and those who extorted the exclusion of abortion, on the Republicans generally (every single one voted against making affordable healthcare available), and it's a shame that Democrats who supported it will lose their Congressional seats barring a miracle.

Thousands of protesters gathered outside Congress at the weekend, shouting "kill the bill". Some directed racist and other derogatory remarks at African-American members of Congress, including John Lewis, one of the veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement. One congressman was spat on.

Another protester shouted "faggot" at Democratic congressman Barney Frank, who later told the Politico website: "It's like the Salem witch trials, and healthcare is the witches. There is mass hysteria."

The Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, described the bill as armageddon 

I've never considered vaccination and first-aid as 'armageddon'. What a strange man. Still, welcome to civilisation.

Acronym City

I've just spent two hours in the company of my comrades, moving module codes and titles around to produce an intellectually justifiable degree while satisfying the whims of management (there is a contradiction, unfortunately). 

I return to my office to find a similar example of cognitive dissonance in the American political system. 

Sarah Palin has recently and repeatedly described state healthcare as 'evil'. She's suggested that even the minimal healthcare available to the aged be cut so that taxes can reduced. But what's this? Sarah says that she used to drive 15 hours through Alaska to take advantage of the CANADIAN (state) health system. 

So not only does she think that Canada's system is better, she's prepared to steal another country's resources, while demanding stricter border controls to stop South Americans and Mexicans from entering the USA. She even defended two border control agents who illegally killed a migrant (their sentences were commuted by Dubya, presumably on the basis that Hispanic non-voters' lives aren't as valuable as others'). 

Clearly, it's time for Canadians to seal the borders. Not only to keep the ghastly Palin out, but so that Americans will be forced to improve their own healthcare rather than sneak over the border to leech off their Friendly Neighbours In The North. 

Benton Fraser, do your duty!

Constable Fraser says 'on your snowmobile, Palin'.

A little good news for Americans

My last post wasn't very Christmassy, was it? Perhaps it's because the world's clearly utterly screwed - Copenhagen was a shameful, embarassing display of reactionary realpolitik, made worse by Obama's refusal to live up to his rhetoric. If you want an even more depressing reading of the summit, try Mark Lynas's eye-witness account: he's a serious thinker who knows his stuff, and he blames China.

However, he was limited by the strictures of his Senate and Congress, bodies packed with corporate shills more interested in the opinions of their paymasters than their constituents or scientists - it's no coincidence that the most vehement enemy of climate science is James Inhofe, recipient of more funding by oil, gas and coal corporations than any other Senator.

The same problem is facing Obama's attempt to pass even a weak version of a National Health Service: insurance companies, making billions from insuring only healthy rich people, have spun these plans as Stalinism, complete with 'death panels' and compulsory abortions for all. Yet, finally, a start has been made, a weak bill has got past the Senate, and that American hero, Senator Bernie Sanders (socialist! Go Vermont!) has sneaked in more cash for free clinics, mental health care and all the other Cinderella services usually ignored in the rush for profit. We salute you.

Slash and burn

In the interest of lightening the tone, I was talking to someone about the misery of shaving (female readers, feel free to fill the comments section with childbirth-based objections) and thought I'd share this anecdote with you.

Knowing that I've always wanted to try the old-fashioned cut-throat blade wet shave experience, one of my friends organised a Luxury Shave Experience for my birthday, as part of a day trip to London.

Off we toddled to a boutique in fashionable Chelsea. My face was wrapped in hot towels, and I settled back into the bosom of a very glamorous young lady, fully expecting the experience of a lifetime. The towels came off and the facial massage started. I was so relaxed that I was almost asleep. Then the razor made its presence felt. Now, gentlemen, you'll all understand that the angle at which the blade meets the face is important. Would you have guessed: perpendicular? Nor me. But there it was: edge on to my skin, and the motion started - the motion of a psychotic windscreen wiper. Back and forth it went, harder and harder.

The pain was, naturally, immense. However, I thought 'perhaps I'm just a wimp. Maybe it's meant to be like that', and didn't utter a squeak. I noticed my companion, through the mirror, leave the room, but thought that she was going for a coffee.

Perhaps ten minutes later, perhaps an hour later, the pain had spread to most areas of my face. Seemingly at random, my torturer patted my face dry and announced that she'd finished. The promised 'aftercare, beauty tips' and various extras were not, clearly, going to materialise, but as a polite chap, I thanked her and left.

Outside, my benefactor was sitting under a tree in the sun. On approaching her, I noticed that she was crying (not unknown in my presence). I coughed to announce my presence and she turned, took one look at my face, and increased the flow of tears (again, not unknown in my experience). However, her tears were occasioned, it turns out, by the mask of blood I was wearing. She had fled the room when the old red stuff had started to flow, and it hadn't stopped for quite some time. Finding a car's side-mirror, I realised that my face was a patchwork of gaping wounds and clumps of beard (I'd not shaven for a week in advance of this spa heaven): the beautician, horrified by the damage she'd done but not caring to alert me, had bailed out halfway, throwing me onto the street without mentioning either the damage or the incomplete job!

And so we wandered the streets of London for the day, passers-by staring openly at my harvest-sun face, blood spattering my clothes, heat pulsing from my head. Later that evening, we attended the recording of a Radio 4 show, in company with a great many aged and respectable retired citizens… none of whom cared to sit next to us, whatever they thought we were.

I've had a major operation and several injuries. I'm deaf, right now. Nothing beats the enduring pain of that day. Still, we've all got some good anecdotes out of it, and I can see the funny side. Now. I've even been for another shave, and it was wonderful. Shame the place has recently gone bankrupt.

Morning! Slightly delayed

I started with a boring Friday and ended up having an interesting one. After the usual horrible swim, I went to buy… bedding. Very exciting. Then I bumped into a friend who required a little medical help. I am a Dr., but not that kind, so off we went.

I did get to see the air ambulance land (not for us), which was exciting. Strangely, one of the crew was filming the patient being hauled out of the 'copter. Is there a sign somewhere inside saying 'this life and death mercy dash will be filmed for training purposes'? Or do they film all trips in case ITV3 needs another cheap 'documentary'? It must be quite a moneyspinner. Major accidents must have competing crews from different TV stations trying to keep each  other out of shot ('John is filming for Britain's Twattiest Drivers. Will he get to the body before Neil, who collects flanges and dislikes mayonnaise, working for Crash Cops? Find out… after the break').

I wonder what constitutes informed consent when you're being airlifted in an emergency. Do they do make-up? 'More blood, now!'.

PS. Just to make the Americans jealous, emergency care and an ambulance call cost precisely £0. Good, isn't it?

PPS. This morning's excitement reminded me how kind and friendly the Great British Public are. All sorts of people of various ages, classes and subcultures stopped to help without a thought for where they should be or what they might be late for.

Daily Mail vs. the NHS: who will win?

Depressingly, it's probably that journalistic harlot the Daily Mail, but in the meantime, here's a constructive and considered response to Richard Littlejohn's inane, ideologically-dictated hatred of the NHS. An NHS worker makes the medical and social case for a state health service rather than the expensive and unequal medical treatment afforded to those who a) have insurance and b) somehow don't get trapped by said insurance's loopholes in the USA.

Remember: over here, whatever is wrong with you, you turn up at a surgery or hospital, get treated, then go home. At no point do you have to produce a credit card or prove that you have insurance.

I know the NHS is tired in places, and that this government's preference for the health of the private sector outweighs its concern for the health of the citizens, but it's a magnificent principle. The health of one affects the health of all, and a fair, efficient service is best provided through the collective will of the people embodied in the state.

Godwin's law proved again

The US healthcare debate is becoming stunningly offensive. Thrill! As a woman shouts 'Heil Hitler' at an Israeli who points out that his former country has a good national health service, tells him that Obama hates Jews and Israel, and yells 'Boo Hoo' when he mentions the Holocaust. Thanks to Jadedj for the original post - he also has a clip of her claiming to live by 'biblical values'.

Take that, Republican'ts

It's early days, but the College Republicans' attempt to collect 'horror stories' about the NHS with which to scare Americans has backfired badly - all the entries so far are positive!

I particularly like this 'horror story':

I went to the Doctor's last month for a, well, downstairs problem. I was given an appointment for that day at 11.30. I got there with plenty of time to spare, but wasn't seen until 11.45. I was livid.

Do add your own honest accounts of NHS care.

Save a few American lives

The US healthcare debate is still being distorted by malign ideologically-motivated forces, aided by the vested interests of the insurance industry, leaving 46 million Americans (20% of the population) uninsured and many others not covered for serious industry. Old people, let's remember, organise coach trips to Canada and Mexico to buy their prescription drugs, whereas here, they're free for pensioners and only £6 for everybody else, whatever the real cost.

The College National Republican Committee is openly asking for 'Your Health Care Horror Stories' via email or on their blog. How about filling it with our actual experiences, or adding your story here, a joint effort between British political site 38 Degrees and US magazine Mother Jones? I know the NHS has its limitations, but it's essentially brilliant - I know several people whose lives have been saved, and others who have received brilliant treatment (I'm looking at you, Zoot Horn). I've made a polite, measured start on the CNRC blog.

Healthcare coverage = Holocaust. Discuss.

Yet again, the American healthcare 'debate' reaches a new low. You wouldn't think that Obama won an election and a mandate handsomely…

On the plus side, this definitively proves that the anti-Obama crowd have lost the argument, according to Godwin's law.

This is really starting to grind my gears

Courtesy of the Guardian's Diary.

US Investor's Business Daily:

"The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script … People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Stephen Hawking after treatment at Addenbrooke's NHS hospital:

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS… I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

Motor Neurone Disease life expectancy: 2-5 years after diagnosis.

Stephen Hawking's diagnosis: 1963 (aged 21). Age now: 67.

So, Investor's Business Daily, you're a lying sack of shit.

Arma virumque cano

We whinge and protest about the NHS a lot - and it certainly gets things wrong - but virtually everyone outside the New Labour bubble and Tory Central Office thinks that a tax-funded, not-for-profit, state-run health service is the only way to provide high quality care fairly to everyone.

It's different in the US. Obama wants to introduce insurance cover so that the 46 MILLION Americans who aren't covered can access healthcare. He isn't (unfortunately) proposing a national health service which would treat everybody - the proposal is to retain private hospitals and reform the insurance system which funds them.

So from this side of the pond, this looks like a slightly kinder version of the capitalist model which has served the US so well (ho ho ho). To many Americans, however, this is communism. Death threats are being made, supporters of healthcare are being beaten up, and now anti-healthcare activists are calling on meeting attendees to bring their guns. What a grown-up way to respond to a weak proposal from a massively endorsed president.

Update:

This is all getting very nasty. American conservatives are spreading lies about the NHS to scare Americans, such as the claim that people over 59 don't get cardiac care, and that Ted Kennedy's brain tumour wouldn't be treated here because he's 77 (well done, Senator Chuck Grassley). Add to this Sarah Palin's description of Obama as 'evil' and her claim that her Down's Syndrome child would face a 'death panel' and we have the makings of a lynch mob. And yes, I'm well aware that that term is racially aligned. There's a nasty undercurrent swirling around Obama which runs 'socialist'-'UnAmerican'-'not born in the US' (untrue)-Muslim (untrue, and who cares anyway)-black-shouldn't be President.

Speak up for the NHS. As Neal points out in the comments, the UK spends less, but spends it better and more fairly. Lots of American pensioners take coach trips to Canada to buy their prescription drugs - pensioners here don't pay a penny (until the Tories get in again) and so don't have to go over to France, Ireland or wherever.

US Election finally ends

Congratulations to Al Franken, committed lefty (by US standards anyway) and comedian, who was finally declared the winner of the Minnesota Senatorial race by the Supreme Court, despite the increasingly ridiculous refusal of Norm Coleman to admit he'd lost.

It's important because it takes the Democrats to 60 (including 2 pro-democrat independents), which can stop the Republicans killing legislation through filibustering (talking until time runs out). Now the Dems can get on with founding a first world health service, if the lobbyists don't ruin it.

The doctor is out - of his mind

Here's a bit of fun. The American Medical Association is desperate to stop Obama founding national health insurance because it's 'socialist' - the argument they've deployed since 1900. The plan isn't even nearly a proper National Health Service such as ours, tired though it is. We only got it because the Labour government gave in to the doctors and 'stuffed their mouths with gold' - but anything which smacks of sensible collective provision is pretty much communist in US political debates.

So here's Ronald Reagan, then a famous actor and aspiring politician, warning that government health insurance will lead to the gulags