LONDON, England — Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama’s plans for a similar system in the United States were branded ‘evil’ by Republicans. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a heartfelt message of support for the NHS via Twitter. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a heartfelt message of support for the NHS via Twitter. Tens of thousands of people have joined a Twitter group expressing pride in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), which offers free taxpayer-funded medical care to all British residents, while leading politicians have spoken out in support. Republican former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this week condemned Obama’s plans to introduce a public heath insurance scheme as an ‘evil’ move that would result in ‘death panels’ deciding who would live or die. Her criticism has been echoed by fellow Republicans in direct attacks on Britain’s NHS. In an article, Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said British healthcare was run by ‘Orwellian’ bureaucrats who put a price tag on life. The comments caused a storm of protest in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister […]
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Britons Pour Love On ‘Evil’ Healthcare System
Author:
Source: CNN
Publication Date: 3:34 p.m. EDT, Fri August 14, 2009
Link: Britons Pour Love On ‘Evil’ Healthcare System
Source: CNN
Publication Date: 3:34 p.m. EDT, Fri August 14, 2009
Link: Britons Pour Love On ‘Evil’ Healthcare System
Stephan: I was just notified that my severely handicapped brother has lost his ophthalmology benefit. The nurse at the facility where he lives called to tell me that he needed new glasses. Arizona no longer pays for eyeglasses. I paid for them, of course, but wondered as I did so, what happens to similar individuals who don't have family to pay for them. I guess the conservative thinking is the poor don't need eye glasses; they can't buy anything anyway so why do they need to be able to read?
When I hear Republicans and conservative Democrats attack the British health care system -- which no one in Britain would exchange for our illness profit system -- I am sorry, I think this is evil. We are sick as a society, and there are elements in our country strongly committed to our remaining sick. In my fantasies we carve off a few Southern states, and those people move there and live in the country they claim to want, while the rest of us fix the deep problems that are destroying America's greatest strength -- its middle class. My only concern is how to handle the immigration problem that would soon arise as those conservatives fled from the world they had created.
