It\’s actually quite rare to see this laid out quite so clearly.
And he needs to recognise that the direction that problem-solving takes us (eg, either toward healthcare reform that cuts into the profits of pharmaceutical and insurance companies and offers some variant of Medicare as at least one choice to people under 65, or toward reform that taxes and ultimately eliminates the better plans offered to working Americans by their employers) depends on which narrative you offer.
See that? A desirable health care reform would be to eliminate good plans.
It doesn\’t matter about the actual level of service that is offered, only that no one can have more than another.
A certain vision of the lefty project laid bare there I think.
You’ve misread it, surely? He’s saying that the Obama needs to spell out a narrative that government reform helps, not does that.
Obama could start by not suggesting policies that will cost more and make matters worse.
With luck the healthcare debacle will kill the Obama Presidency and immunise Americans against socialism for another generation, much as the travails of Jimmy Carter (that most ex- of ex-Presidents) did.
Yes, Matthew is obviously right here. He’s saying “one narrative is the true one, that you’ll get more choice; another narrative is the healthcare industry’s lie, that you’ll have to die in a ditch; we should make sure the first one is the one people believe”.
But it is not the true one .If I had the tax I throw away on the NHS back over my lifetime I could finance more private care than I could ever hope to use . I read that it would be about £500,000 as a Policy. The one cancels the other , obviously
Anyway socialists bossy -booted supporters of “The One” here like John B who want the Land of the Free to be turned into the land of the infantilised slave are enough for me . If he likes it I`m agin.
Err, you know the US *currently* spends more taxpayer money per head on public healthcare than the UK, right?
Um, how does that disprove his point about being able to afford private health care through paying less tax? It doesn’t. If the Americans spend even more through tax on healthcare, then they’d be able to afford even more private care without the tax burden.
John B logic fail.
@Kusabi:
It’s cheaper to live in the UK, pay taxes to support the NHS, and also purchase private health insurance, than it is to live in the US and purchase private health insurance.
And that’s *before* you factor in the taxes required to pay for healthcare for the old and the very poor, which one might hope even fairly libertarian types would accept as necessary.
Got it in one. As you say, there it is in all its inglory.
Only problem is that you don’t get much “care” or treatment for that matter from Organisations based on a stalinist plan.
The NHS is the worst treatment funded in the worst way.
http://nationaldeathservice.blogspot.com/ has examples of why anyone who values their health should want the state as far away from their body as possible.
wasn’t going to mention Traction man…
@10 anecdotes and ideology != data. Data shows that the NHS provides average-for-developed-country outcomes for less-than-developed-country money.
John the USA has always spent an astonishingly high proportion of its GDP on health care. I wouldn’t know how this currently sits but its has usually been slightly higher via the state and an additional amount again that is even higher spent on private health care . This reflects the exceptional priorities and spending power of the USA. The reasons for this striking phenomenon is need not concern us now.
The UK spends a relatively low amount of GDP on health care not only compared to the US but to most advanced economies .On top of that it is peculiarly dominated by state provision
These are what we call two vastly different countries and your ‘errrm yeah but eeerm look how clever I am” shtick shows no more than that . It does no show that state moving into areas where the market provided will not kill off its competitors which it quite obviously will.
PS -I am not actually a critic of the NHS here , perhaps there is more than one way to live and not just the one John B would like to inflict on an already suffering world
Health outcomes are not by any means only provided by health care . A reasonable point of comparison might be revovery from Cancer say which is all health care .
I don know know that works out ,
About five years ago I worked out the US spent more on healthcare administration than the NHS spent on everything (per capita). I doubt it’s changed much now.