General Chat

a "60-year mistake"?

That's a bit harsh. OH owes a lot to them.

Fiona, it's not me who said it lol

I think it was a Tory MEP.

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/health/brown-intervenes-in-american-nhs-debate-$1318567.htm

Who in America said this:- "If you think the US Health Service is expensive now, just wait to see what it will cost you when it's free".

Lol No, I didn't for one moments think it was you Squirrel. The quote marks gave it away. I did guess it was a tory though. But I kept quiet on that one, you never know these days. :)))

Thank goodness for that Fiona lol

I wonder what good old Dermot was actually saying there ... Nothing, I guess.

Are you folks following any of the doings in the States?

We here in Canada have become the punching bag of the right wing there (even more than we usually are). FoxNews is in hysterics on a nightly basis about all the horrible things the Canadian healthcare system does to people.

We actually have a pure "NHS". No private insurance allowed. Everybody gets the same standard of care, regardless of how rich or poor. This doesn't offer the rich a chance to say Why should my taxes be supporting the NHS?? I pay for my own health insurance!!

And the huge, vast, overwhelming majority of us are happy as pigs with our healthcare system. And a lot of us have been fighting back. A Canadian Senator -- an old Tory backroom boy -- made a big speech in the Senate here (our Senate is like the HofL) disproving everything a right-wing US Senator had said in his own Senate about healthcare in Ontario. Lies and outright lies.

You folks also don't hear the reality of health care in the US. Last month, someone at an internet board I frequent - I don't know him - lost his daughter to a stroke. She had exceeded the maximum assistance she was allowed for health care ... by $3. And could not afford to pay herself, to go to a doctor.

Actually, if you have a few minutes, this is something that is really, really worth reading if you want to understand what people in the States are up against -- not the poor and unemployed and homeless, but ordinary middle-class people. It will blow your mind, and make you cry.

http://www.progressivefox.com/?p=721

This Is What Happens When You Get Cancer in America
"How I lost my health insurance at the hairstylist’s"

Please do read it - in that one article you will see what life could be like without a public healthcare system.

Cherish your NHS - and look after it and keep it in good health, and if it's sick, make them fix it! ;)

Well, I've had dealings with my local hospital recently - the first time in 20 years! - and they have been excellent.

Well done the NHS I say!

Jill

Well said Janey :-)

I hear a lot of complaints about the NHS but we'd be in a worse state without it. There would be many people who would have to do without because they couldn't afford to see a doctor much less have treatment for anything more serious.

SRS, I took so long finding that blog about being sick in the States that I missed your link when I posted.

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/health/brown-intervenes-in-american-nhs-debate-$1318567.htm


* Gordon Brown has gone about as far as politically possible to intervene in the debate over American adverts casting the NHS in a bad light, by tweeting his support for the institution.

* Anger across Britain grew by the hour yesterday as details spread of the US adverts showing across the Atlantic.

* The ads, paid for by a right-wing group, made several damaging assertions about the NHS in an effort to prevent President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.

* The ads were followed by damaging debate in the US, in which the NHS was branded "evil" and "Orwellian".

* A campaign entitled #welovethenhs was set up, and quickly received so much support the site crashed.


That's great - just what I was saying about our Senator Hugh (Huey to his friends) Segal. Our problem here is that our prime minister himself is a right-wing cretin who would like nothing better than to destroy our healthcare system, so it's left to Red Tory senators to do it.

Canadians have been hitting youtube to debunk the lies in ads that are running on US television. I'm sure Twitter too, I just wouldn't know about that. ;)

Good heavens!...I had no idea I had missed so much by not keeping my eyes out on the news. Thank you for bringing it to my attention......I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing because I now feel soooo angry! Tsk!

Susan#, we Canucks have been hopping mad for years about the crap that gets spewed south of the border about our health care system, so join the club. ;)


Sarah Palin announced on her blog this week that if the US had public healthcare like the NHS, there would be "death panels" that would decide which babies and old people are no good and should die.

Here's a brand new youtube for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtkafKl--k

Give him a star and tell the world what you think about Sarah Palin. ;)


Another Brit - he reads aloud what Sarah Palin said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnalv1SWwG4

Nice young fellow. Give him a star too. ;)

As he says: it's complete and utter lies. And yes, they're being told in the US Congress, every night on FoxNews, in emails clogging the internet ...


But here's the really good one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSv7Va8enjc

"Exclusive footage proving Sarah Palin was right! Barack Obama's death panel decides the fate of her parents and down syndrome baby"


Aha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSPRkq28iU

"Dan Hannan MEP rubbishes the NHS on Fox News"

That's Sean Hannity interviewing him. Be very glad you did not know that.

One viewer says:

"Hannan is a disgrace and doesn't represent the British people."

Actually, lots of viewers say it, not all as articulately. ;)


And one more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFvYXLj0oc

"Go Fourth's John Prescott responding to Dan Hannan MEP's claims on Fox News that the NHS is a 60 year mistake."

What amuses me is....How do they get away with spouting such rubbish about other countries...If it was one of our government spewing such tripe it would be enough for them to start a war over it.......when will they ever get out of their Disney like world and see the real world for a change.....I am not saying that the NHS is the best thing in the world but it has to be better than their system of 'You can only live if you have the money'


Tsk!...am on a soapbox now and it is too small for me.....I spent some time in the US and saw the poverty which was as bad if not worse than some of the third world countries...Yes they have patriotism and wealth...but the other side of the coin is not nice!...give me the NHS any day...warts and all

Hear hear.

And make mine OHIP. ;)

(Ours is actually divided by province, with national standards each province has to meet.)

"We were duped, say two British women used in US health campaign"

Two British women who have become the unwitting stars of a campaign to derail Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms yesterday said that their views on the NHS had been misrepresented.

Katie Brickell and Kate Spall said that they strongly supported state-funded healthcare, but their descriptions of poor treatment at the hands of the NHS form the centrepiece of an advertising campaign against the proposed reforms in America.

Both appear in adverts for Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (CPR), a lobby group that opposes Mr Obama’s plans for universal medical insurance, which have caused a transatlantic rift over the merits of the NHS.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6795466.ece



Have you seen what Stephen Hawking has had to say about his NHS?

From the same article:


Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge scientist, has also been drawn into the row after the American newspaper Investor’s Business Daily used an editorial to claim that he “wouldn’t have a chance in the UK” because the NHS would have deemed him “worthless”, given his physical disabilities.

Mr Hawking, who has motor neuron disease, rejected criticism of the NHS yesterday as he collected America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “I would not be here today if not for the NHS,” he said.

No, the mistake is the overpaid Morons that run it.**M**.