31 Responses

1. Wiseguy

   January 6th, 2010 at 4:22 pm

   1

   Jealousy. America is the only “developed” country in the world without free universal health care. Some achievement huh?

2. madart

   January 6th, 2010 at 10:11 pm

   2

   You have better health care than we do here in the US. The people who are against reform here and criticize you are the people who are getting buckets of money from the health industry to not change a thing.
   Or they are listening to the people whole are getting money from the health industry who want nothing to change.
   Or they hate this only because they hate Obama and want him to fail.
   And then their are the people who can’t admit that anyone anywhere can do anything better that the US ever.

3. uk_pinda

   January 6th, 2010 at 11:56 pm

   3

   Americans are strange ,a lot on this answer seem to object to taxes paying for health care but are quite happy to let 99% of their tax revenue go straight to the private bank the Federal Reserve to pay instalments on the money that they created from fresh air.
   Or is it that most Americans don’t know this and don’t understand how their own treasury works?
   NHS =GOOD

4. ♥ ultima dark princess

   January 7th, 2010 at 3:07 am

   4

   we are so lucky to not have to pay for our healthcare. the NHS is truly a blessing.
   i wish they had a system like it all over the world so that people could be taken care of even with little money.
   seeing poor people in other countries struggle to look after their health breaks my heart.

5. When You See The Southern Cross

   January 7th, 2010 at 8:45 am

   5

   The short answer is that most information Americans get about the NHS comes from Fox News, Limbaugh, Beck, etc.
   Most have never traveled to England and have no effing idea what they’re talking about. America is a country of idiots, unforunately.

6. perfecti

   January 7th, 2010 at 9:48 am

   6

   This sort of attitude defines a christian country, doesn’t it?
   The NHS makes so much sense. The care isn’t amazing (and I speak from experience) but overall I think it’s a much better system than in the US

7. Sublime

   January 7th, 2010 at 2:37 pm

   7

   It’s because they don’t get free healthcare and we do. Simple jelousy. They have to pay an arm and a leg for healthcare and don’t get if they don’t have insurance!

8. Visitors

   January 7th, 2010 at 5:49 pm

   8

   Maybe you would feel different if you or a loved one had a chance to not being covered under “obamacare”.

9. Culture Warrior

   January 7th, 2010 at 9:26 pm

   9

   Don’t worry about it. I’ve been trying to figure out why the Republicans believe what they do for years and it just isn’t worth your time.

10. Radical Centrist

    January 7th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    10

    Because too many Americans believe whatever Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly say.

11. agreeabl

    January 7th, 2010 at 11:32 pm

    11

    Because anything un-American is ‘evil’ in their eyes, particularly when it is a better alternative to what they have got.

12. No name.

    January 8th, 2010 at 12:39 am

    12

    I can’t see how they can call our system “evil” when it helps everybody.

13. dylanfox

    January 8th, 2010 at 3:47 am

    13

    because they are “fair weather friends” willing to use any dirty means to achieve their ends!

14. Billionaires for Wealthcare

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:52 am

    14

    Thanks for your post!

15. ian

    January 8th, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    15

    i read that they said our nhs is a breeding ground for terrorism..lol .. wtf

16. Mordent

    January 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    16

    I’m going to have to pull you up a bit on one issue – the US health care system will not leave people to die; doctors have to make people stable whether they can afford to pay or not. Any further treatment however…
    I love the NHS. I have recently had about $54 thousand of healthcare (I checked) completely for free. So I had to wait 3 weeks for a non-essential MRI; rather that than spend an entire year’s wages on it.
    I don’t really understand why Americans hate our system. Perhaps it is fear of large government, or just general fear of something new that they do not understand. Perhaps they should be reminded that while they will have to pay for other people’s healthcare, other people are also paying for their own – and nobody except the super rich will ever pay as much as corporations will.
    Besides, the whole thing is moot anyway – the “obamacare” system is nothing like the NHS.

17. AgProv

    January 8th, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    17

    It baffles me too that so many Americans, politically speaking, are like turkeys who can’t wait for Thanksgiving…
    In Britain, we’ve grown accustomed to being cynical and questioning about our politicians and people in positions of authority. I suspect we forget, or don’t factor in, that many Americans don’t think that way – they’ve still been cultured and conditioned to believe that what they hear is the truth, be it from FOX TV, politicians, Rush Limbaugh, and above all from their ministers of religion.
    Factor in that American religion gives credence to pastors and preachers who believe the Republican Party is god’s agency on Earth, and that 48% (at least) of Americans call themselves Christians and claim to attend chucrh once a week… that’s a big audience for right-wing religious leaders.
    A lot of lying bollocks about the NHS has been dripping down from authoritative and beleiveable authority figures in the USA this last week or two. Given that the American education system, in the main, does not really teach students to critically evaluate or otherwise interpret an argument – still less distinguish opinion from fact – then the public schools are turning out students who in the main will digest any old crap that they’re told. (And thanks to Thatcher and Blair, our schools are adopting the american model, Gods help us).
    It doesn’t matter, for instance, that the right to good contraception and if that fails, safe abortion are part of the set of rights that can take fear and worry away, and greatly enhance the quality of life of a woman.
    Because the churches and their supporters scream about it being ungodly and Satanic from the pulpit, many American women will vote against measures that would make their lives better and safer.
    It’s the same thing with healthcare: the big vested interests with most to lose are disseminating the poison and the lies, and people are swallowing it, despite the incontrovertible evidence that European-style healthcare would enhance the general quality of life for Americans.
    Remember when Margaret Thatcher quoted ther Good Samaritan parable and twisted that into an argument for lower taxation and private healthcare? Thatcher argued that without a greater share of his own money, the Samaritan would not have been able to show private charity to the injured man he found at the roadside, and without private medicine he wouldn’t have found a doctor or a hospital bed so quickly. I’m surprised the American right hasn’t used this yet… the obvious reply is, “yes, but look at all the people who passed him by in the road and did nothing before the Samaritan came along.He was the exception to the rule, not the exemplar… and where could he have taken the injured man other than to an NHS hospital with an A&E dept, as BUPA don’t do Casualty clinics?”
    But many Americans think like this: they want lower taxes, and sure as Hell don’t want their tax money spent on some bum who can’t afford his own healthcare and tthinks he has a right to scrounge off my back. How to reach them? Point out that one day, they might want and need a medical procedure they can’t afford to buy, so they either go without or rely on someone else?

18. WP Robot Wordpress Autoposter

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:42 pm

    18

    And you’re the most common example of anyone living in a country with UHC. No one living in such a country would say, “Our health care stinks, we need private insurers to replace UHC!” Expect, perhaps, the very rich… and 95% of Americans do not fall into that category.
    And you’re right, any country that holds to the idea that it’s citizens should only be as healthy as they can afford to be… is a country that puts no premium on life. And THAT is evil.

19. Ex sheepie

    January 9th, 2010 at 12:02 am

    19

    Shocking proposals to mass sterilize the population by artificially medicating municipal water supplies, which were outlined by President Obama’s top science czar in his 1977 book Ecoscience, are already in effect as global sperm counts drop and gender-bending chemicals pollute our rivers and lakes.
    As we highlighted last week, alongside John P. Holdren’s advocacy for a global planetary regime to enforce forced abortion, government `seizure of children born out of wedlock, and mandatory bodily implants designed to prevent pregnancy, Obama’s top advisor also called for,”Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods.”
    Holdren added that the sterilant must meet stiff requirements in that it must only affect humans and not livestock.
    “It must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock,” wrote Holdren with co-authors Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich.
    Holdren notes that the proposal to forcibly mass sterilize the public against their will “seems to horrify people” and yet it doesn’t seem to bother him too much, amidst the myriad of other totalitarian Dr. Strangelove style ideas that are put forward in the book as a way to carry out an aggressive agenda of population reduction.
    Global sperm counts have dropped by a third since 1989 and by half in the past 50 years. The rate of decline is only accelerating as more and more couples find it harder to have children. In studies of white European men, the rate of decline is as much as 50 per cent in the last 30 years. In Italy, this equates to a native population reduction of 22 per cent by 2050. Population reduction is already occurring amongst native residents in many areas of Europe and America.
    Everything from cellphone signals, to eating soy products, to female hormones entering the water supply from HRT products has been blamed. There’s no doubt that environmental pollution from industry and pharmaceutical products has contributed, but new research has uncovered that additional chemicals known as Antiandrogens are now finding their way into the water supply.
    “The University of Exeter is now working with chemists at the University of Sussex to establish exactly what the chemicals in question are, and hence to understand how they are being released into waste water,” states the study.
    Antiandrogens are capable of preventing or inhibiting the biologic effects of androgens, male sex hormones, on normally responsive tissues in the body. Antiandrogens are given to transsexual men who want to become women and they are also given to sex offenders released from prison to reduce their sexual libido. These substances have the effect of counteracting masculinisation and effectively diminishing normal male biological characteristics associated with the release of testosterone.
    Antiandrogens used in pesticides sprayed on our food have also been identified as “endocrine disruptors” that have been “demonstrated to induce demasculinization in rats.”
    These newly discovered poisons, combined with contraceptive pills and HRT have literally had the effect of gender-bending no less than a third of male fish in all British rivers, which causes them to produce eggs and make them infertile. Dozens of species besides fish, such as polar bears, bald eagles, otters and whales have also been affected and the problem is global.
    In waterways that are located close to sewage treatment facilities, a staggering 80 per cent of male fish were found to have female characteristics as a result of such chemicals.It is also feared that bird populations could be devastated in the long run from chemicals being passed from infected fish when birds eat the fish. Veteran fishermen are already noticing a severe decline in fish populations across the country.
    This is what comes out of our taps, not to even mention the scores of other dangerous compounds and chemicals that are in our water supply, we are drinking a poison that makes animals and fish infertile. Human sperm counts are also dropping on a consistent basis and the connection is clear – chemicals that make us infertile are already in the water supply, just as Holdren and other top eugenicists called for more than 30 years ago.
    “There is certainly the potential for it to have an effect in humans – and possibly a marked effect,” said Professor Charles Tyler of Exeter University, one of the country’s leading authorities on the effects of oestrogen.
    It is therefore tragically ironic that the filters needed to combat this very real and very dangerous threat to our environment and to both animals and humans are being prevented from being installed at sewage treatment facilities because of the “carbon footprint” they would create and fears that the

20. time for change

    January 9th, 2010 at 2:15 am

    20

    our NHS is shabby and run down but thats the fault of the labour government installing money grabbing useless managers. . the americans are worried that theirs will be shabby too. but it wont happen. all it will mean is everyone will get health care and insurance companies will get less money.
    i read about the writer joseph heller who had guerlain barre syndrome. (sorry spelling). he was hospitalised in america unable to speak, eat or do anything at all. he received excellent care for 6 months. then his insurance ran out. he was sent home totally unable to care for himself. luckily he had good friends and eventually made a full recovery. what would have happenned if he had no friends?
    this sort of thing doesnt happen with our NHS.

21. A-J-86

    January 9th, 2010 at 8:03 am

    21

    For those who say the NHS is free, correction its not! Its paid for by the hard working citizens who religiously pay through their wages (without choice)
    My partner has paid £20 ( $40) per week for the last 7 years and has never been in hospital once. Yet there are people who abuse the system every Friday night clogging up the A+E with a self inflicted busted nose, who don’t work and have contributed zilch to the NHS and its people like my partner that are paying for it!!!
    Yes it means we all receive health care, but it also means there are people who don’t work, never have and don’t intend to that are just waiting for free handouts!!

22. Buffalo NY plastic surgeon

    January 9th, 2010 at 10:15 am

    22

    Thank you for your posting. You are absolutely correct. Most poor people in USA have never traveled outside the USA because they can’t afford to, and are being “scared” and lied to about what our government is trying to do about health care. I, for one, would welcome millions of posts on this site, from citizen’s of other countries who do have NHS, to tell it like it really is so these poor people will quit being anxious and confused. We do have a gun to our heads, held by the republicans, who continue to distort the truth to the majority.

23. Bob

    January 9th, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    23

    I don’t think it is Americans in general that are criticising our system.
    The issue is that there are a lot of people in the health insurance industry who stand to lose out big time if Obama is successful. The Republican party and its friends also have a vested interest in seeing Obama defeated on a key plank of his agenda (regardless of whether or not that is in the best interests of the country).
    Therefore, they are using all means necessary to stop reform. One of these means is telling outrageous lies about foreign health-care systems.
    For example, one lie that is doing the rounds is that certain treatments are denied to the elderly solely on basis of age. For example, you don’t get treatment for heart disease if you are over 59. Strange then that the average age of a heart bypass operation on the NHS is 66?

24. Snowman

    January 9th, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    24

    It’s our internal battle — and to be fair, NHS is losing money and entertaining a two-tier solution; NHS + HMO’s.
    All those using a social health program are losing money — Australia will be insolvent in 5 years, Sweden taxes @ 60%, The UK is losing money and opting for a private insurance supplement, Canada just injected hundreds of billions of dollars into their system last year to keep hospitals open.
    It’s not that NHS is horrible — it’s that U.S. HEALTH CARE (not the system) is the best in the world.
    Our problem is cost.
    - The government doesn’t pay its bill in full w/ the Government health insurance programs we own currently.
    - 12+ Illegal Immigrants sponge off of the system…don’t pay
    - 30+ Americans making over $50,000 don’t buy insurance and sponge off of the rest of us who pay.
    - Lottery Lawyers tee-off on doctors who are vulnerable requiring $250,000 malpractice insurance policies.
    The list is infinite. Cost is our problem — not health care. We lead the world in technological advance, experimental treatments, pharmaceutical development, etc. etc…
    Because of the inefficiencies in our system, COST and subsequently ACCESS become a problem.
    Any “solution” that doesn’t address cost isn’t a solution at all. It’s a short-term band-aid…shuffling our problems to future generations. It’s unethical and selfish…the same I way I feel about Socialized Medicine. It’s simply unsustainable long term.
    Medicare – 36 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities
    Medicaid – 35 trillion in unfunded liabilities
    VAcare – hit and miss — the misses require amputations
    Tricare – Being reformed already
    Mass.’s UHC program – BANKRUPT
    Hawaii’s UHC program – BANKRUPT
    California’s Medi-CAL – Bankrupt
    Oregon’s System – Bankrupt
    Certainly chipping away at certain failure is a bone-head move.
    Those who advocate Obamacare are thinking short-term for their benefit — they can’t see past the idea that it’s “Free”…meaning someone else will be paying for their service.
    It’s a sham. Address costs — make it affordable — then there will be no excuses.
    Edit:
    “The people who are against reform here”
    Nobody is against reform — how dense do you have to be to parrot that nonsense from D.C.? 99.9999% of people want reform — costs are too high.

25. frm7716

    January 9th, 2010 at 10:46 pm

    25

    We’re going to get healthcare reform that will cut costs and cover more people without ending people’s private insurance and causing high taxes. There’s more than one way to reform healthcare and we’re going to do it right.
    If NHS is so perfect, why are private insurers coming in to take up the slack?!

26. Englishman in Kentucky

    January 9th, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    26

    Are you British? Did you know the NHS is literally bankrupt, it is top heavy with bureaucracy and patient data goes missing on a regular basis and is one of the main contributors to identity theft and welfare fraud.
    I have just paid $16 and a few pennies for a pelvic and abdominal CT scan, I’d still be waiting in the UK or misdiagnosed.

27. Jerry From Ga

    January 10th, 2010 at 2:24 am

    27

    That is amusing. You can have it-we would rather have the best health care system in the world. We have so many doctors coming from other countries to practice medicine here. Why is it that Canadians and Britons want to come here for major surgeries?

28. Bonnie C

    January 10th, 2010 at 8:06 am

    28

    There’s alot of crap in the bill 0bama is trying to pass:http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/200…

29. Warren Peace

    January 10th, 2010 at 8:31 am

    29

    i like my job and my insurance.why should i have to give up mine to pay for yours.because there is no control over which business can bail out and force us on the public option.

30. Chris J

    January 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    30

    Good for you. Keep it. We don’t want it.

31. Here's your change

    January 10th, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    31

    The problem is that the government officials all have different HC bills that they are looking at from that of the President.
    Congress has one variation while the House of Representatives have a different version.
    And Obamanation is trying to sell HIS version of the HC bill, which no one else apparently has a copy of.
    So it’s like reading an FBI document where pages upon pages are blacked out or missing, and every one is trying to GUESS what the bill is about.
    No one is on the same page, or HC document, so it’s a struggle to figure out what works.
    Personally, I don’t want to have to pay for illegal aliens patients HC.
    Nor do I want to pay for someone that works, but chooses NOT to get health care because they can’t afford it because of their $80 a month cell phone bill, $50 a month cable bill, $300 a month car note, and $250 dollar a month credit card bill.