[MD] Privatised medicine? No thanks

[Ant McWatt]

Platt stated April 23rd:

I see by this mornings "Independent" and "Guardian" that England's National
Health Service has got more troubles. Headline from the Independent: 
"Doctors
report "We no longer have free health care.'" Headline from the Guardian:
"Brown faces biggest NHS strike in 20 years." No need to bore you with the
details.


Ant McWatt comments:

Platt,

As ever, it's like "preparing a thesis" to follow up your unreferenced 
quotes...

Anyway, at least it's good to see you finally recognising the "Independent" 
and "Guardian" as relatively reliable news sources if a bit strange to see 
you inadvertently warning us yet again about relying on privatised medicine 
as the primary health care provider in a civillised society.  To quote 
Christoph Lees (a consultant obstetrician and maternal-foetal medicine at 
Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge) in the Independent article you refer to:

"While welcoming patients' ability to enhance their care by choosing 
different parts of a package of care from the NHS and private sectors, we 
must recognise that this approach may disenfranchise those unable or 
unwilling to pay for 'top-up care'."

"There is no point pretending ['top- up'] charges don't exist. We would ask 
the Department of Health to clarify its position regarding the interaction 
of 'top-up' payments with NHS care."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2474429.ece

Beyond the Talk Radio smokescreen, it appears to me that you don't want the 
results of your own pet political ideas (i.e. the ideas of those right-wing 
business gurus who advised Thatcher in the first place to privatise the NHS) 
re-imported back to the US and who can blame you!

As I also mentioned before, a related reference you should follow up is the 
"Thirty Days" TV series which has been recently broadcast on FX in the US 
and Channel 4 in the UK presented by Morgan Spurlock (the guy who ate _only_ 
McDonald's for a month for the film "Super Size Me" and was fortunate to 
survive it without permanent damage) .  The first program from the TV series 
was particularly telling as the viewer saw how it was privatised healthcare 
which ultimately made it impossible for Spurlock and his girlfriend Alex 
(basically both healthy people) to live on the minimum wage in the US for 
even a month.

As Morgan Spurlock confirms:

I didn't really realize how difficult it was going to be living off minimum 
wage or $5.15 or $6.15 or even seven bucks an hour until I was there doing 
it. It was definitely something I thought we should explore.

Danny Gallagher: What surprised you most about that first episode?

MS: I think it's the impact it has on relationships, the impact it has on a 
couple. That's why I'm so glad Alex went because it really showed the 
strains that are put on a relationship when you're struggling through this 
type of existence…When I was there and saw how Alex and I were like just 
exhausted when we were around each other, we were bitter, we were angry with 
each other at times, and we were just emotionally spent. You just see how 
hard it would be to keep a family together, to keep a relationship together 
if you're working two jobs and six or seven days a week. It would just be 
impossible.

DG: I think the interesting thing with the first episode is you're exploring 
minimum wage and you stumble upon this other issue with health care because 
all of a sudden, both of you get sick and you've got a $1,200 health care 
bill. Did you realize that you could be exploring one issue on the show, 
stumble onto another one, and show the audience how these issues are 
connected?

MS: For me, especially when you're there, that was one of the things we 
never even thought of it until we were there. Suddenly she was sick, and I 
hurt my arm, and this is something else. This is one of those little things 
that you never could plan for that just kind of comes up and you're like, 
this is a good storyline. This is a serious problem that we never connected 
to this. When we started meeting people who don't have health insurance and 
who have kids and families, [we learned] that when you don't have health 
insurance, your primary care provider becomes the hospital. That's a tough 
proposition when you leave with a $1,200 medical bill.

DG: With Super Size Me, you tried to transform the way people look at junk 
food. So with 30 Days, do you hope to transform junk TV?

MS: For me, the goal is to try and create a show that, like the movie, makes 
people think a little bit. I want to entertain you, and I think the show is 
very entertaining and very funny and really different. But at the same 
point, it makes you think. It makes you use the grey matter in your head, 
and, for me, the goal is to try and continue to create some things that 
inspire people to think, makes us want to examine this world we live in and 
change the world around us...

Morgan Spurlock in conversation with Danny Gallagher, a freelance writer, 
reporter and humorist "living in Texas where everything is bigger, badder, 
better and battered."

http://www.arrivistepress.com/August_05/danny_gallagher_morgan_spurlock_08_05.shtml

Sleep tight,

Anthony



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