US Republicans tell lies about the NHS

[Philidor]

I opened my Daily Mail today - it comes free with the shopping - and found this. Keep in mind the Mail is a right-wing, mass circulation British daily.

'I owe my life to the NHS': Stephen Hawking tells US to stop attacking health service

...the Investor's Business Daily said in an editorial: '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.'

They had to correct the piece when it was pointed out that the physicist was born, lives and works in the UK.

Mr Hawking said: 'I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS.'

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley claimed that Democrat Senator Edward Kennedy, who is being treated for a brain tumour, would be left to die in Britain because he is 77.

Source

What's going on in the US? Why is the political right telling lies about the British National Health Service? Surely their argument can't be that weak?

Here's their argument: that keeping a large group of mainly black and Hispanic voters without health insurance or under-insured is a social good. It puts the fear of God into them, provides a disciplined and malleable underclass which private industry can exploit, makes them go out and get three low paid jobs, and applies good, social Darwinist principles whereby the weak go to the wall, middle class tax-take is protected and the profits of private health insurance companies maintained or increased.

Why can't they stick to that and leave the dear old NHS alone?

[marquis66]

Le sigh

You know, I am pretty (fiscally) conservative when it comes right down to it. But seriously, it is bull like this that keeps me from actually recognizing them.

That being said, I am becoming more liberal the more dumbass Replicans talk.

[Zeitblom]

Originally Posted by Philidor

I opened my Daily Mail today

Phil, you astonish me. No wonder you keep posting images of Hyacinth Bucket on the forum.

More seriously, there was a fine counterblast by Michelle Hanson in the Guardian yesterday:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...cans-health-us

The Republican Right's comments have made me angrier than almost anything I have read for quite a while. Like Michelle Hanson, I feel a sense of "how dare they" - it's as if they have violated something quite personal, and I really feel the need to nail the lie. I want to tell them about my father, in his late seventies and in generally indifferent health, who was fitted with a stent a couple of years ago and was treated with compassion, professionalism and dignity. How dare the likes of Palin and Cheney slander the fine people who work in our Health Service? (And, by the same token, how dare Cameron and Osborne - sitting on their inherited millions - claim that our society can't afford to pay the same people a decent pension).

[Chilperich]

I think that the US urgently needs a proper universal system of socialised medicine, but I would not propose the NHS of today as a model, with its management-heavy structure, professionalisation of nursing, internal market, PFI hospitals, etc.

You have to go back to the NHS of the 50s, 60s and 70s to see how such a system should work.

[Chilperich]

Originally Posted by Zeitblom

More seriously, there was a fine counterblast by Michelle Hanson in the Guardian yesterday:

Off-topic trivia note: Michele Hanson, before she became a journalist, was a professional musician. When I was a teenager, she started to teach me flute (before I concluded that I wasn't really cut out for it), and very kindly continued to teach me piano thereafter (she introduced me to Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos).

She was a very good musician and teacher, and a very nice lady. She used to let me practise on the harpsichord she kept in her flat in Addison Road, Kensington. One day I answered the door to one of her advanced flute students: it was the session-man Dick Parry (who played sax on "Us And Them" on Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon!).

[Philidor]

Thinking about the scale of the reaction to US criticisms - Twitter crashed on Wednesday under a barrage of posts attacking the US political right, the Health Department issued a point-by-point rebuttal of "errors" i.e. dirty lies being spread in America, it was the lead item on the BBC morning news today - I think it's connected with English national identity.

The English have notorious problems deciding who they are, of reaching common ground on the defining nature of their shared culture. The Welsh, Scots and Irish have no such difficulty - meet an Irishman in a bar and he knows EXACTLY who he is.

The NHS soothes some of that cultural confusion. The English like it and feel it reflects, in part, who they are. So to criticise the NHS is to criticise the English. Raving socialists and die-hard Tories get miffed and unite to defend it and attack those attacking it.

NB under the NHS Sarah Palin would be treated, free of charge, for her mental illness.

[composerdoh]

Please please PLEASE keep correcting and bashing the morons. I honestly don't know where they get their information- in my experience the idea of "rationing" health care is more than a myth, it's a downright LIE, and it makes me FURIOUS!!!

Growing up in the US, I repeatedly heard horror stories about healthcare in UK and Canada. One day I realized I talked to Canadians all the time when calling customer service lines, and decided to ask them in neutral terms about their health care every time I talked to one, and they universally praised it to the skies.

Watch the movie "Sicko"- he reveals a lot of the motivation behind the history of lying to prevent a single-payer system from taking hold in the US. (In a nutshell- venture capitalists make billions off of our overpaying for the system we have, and it all goes back to that fantastic, stand-up, all-around great guy, Richard Nixon.)

Also, you should watch the commentaries of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert- some REALLY brilliant satire and insight into our political/media systems.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mo...h-panel-debate


Also, watch the opening of the August 13 episode- classic Daily Show- showing Glenn Beck clips saying how great our health care is, then showing clips from just 16 months ago of him contradicting himself.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-epi...rachel-mcadams

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by composerdoh

Please please PLEASE keep correcting and bashing the morons....

Doing my best mate and thanks for the great links. Search US Republicans tell lies about the NHS on Google and see here.

[Zeitblom]

Originally Posted by Philidor

The English like it and feel it reflects, in part, who they are. So to criticise the NHS is to criticise the English. Raving socialists and die-hard Tories get miffed and unite to defend it and attack those attacking it.

Not all die-hard Tories, apparently:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O5fmKlgsoM"]YouTube - 'Deeply Un-American'[/ame]

[composerdoh]

Keep it up- just watched this one: check it out.

[ame="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/240857/august-11-2009/jonathan-cohn"]Jonathan Cohn | The Colbert Report 05109 | ColbertNation.com[/ame]