Vultures, Serpents, and Nye Bevan
Once again there is a lot of chatter about the NHS.
Let me state here and now I think the NHS is a vital quality in our life. Even though Nye Bevan was considered quite left wing in his day, setting up the NHS and fighting the battles he did to do so, he was almost heroic. The fact that it does a basically brilliant job is evidence of how right it was when he set it up.
However, it does need an overhaul and no political party seems to have the guts to do it. Meantime the vultures circle overhead, and the serpents of poison whisper in politicians ears.
The Serpents are lobby groups, whispering that only severe change will do the job. Sell off this sell off that....
The Vultures are the Insurance companies and the likes of Branson who see a fabulous money making opportunity. Theirs is no altruistic goal like Bevan the great man who made it happen.
Bevan was a Welshman, and he saw the troubles of the miners at first hand. He saw the injuries, and the hardship. An injury could cause a family to starve as a man with a broken leg could not work. He wanted those men back at work as soon as possible so that they could keep their family out of hardship and poverty. Bevan was a man with heart. A man you just cannot help but respect.
The one thing above all we must never change is the funding vehicle. We all make payments into it, regardless. In real terms they are not much. But as they all go into one pot, and premiums never change or are withdrawn, for a whole lifetime, there are sufficient funds.
However if you allowed Insurance companies to get involved this is what happens.
Say you pay £100, the insurance company will allow £50 into the claims fund the rest will be taken as commission and administration. The claims will be paid and the profit in the claims fund say 20% will be taken as pure profit. That will happen every year. There is no build up of funds as the profits are taken. If someone is deemed high risk, up go their premiums.
It works in the USA and elsewhere I hear you say? Does it?
I experienced a heart scare in the USA. My overnight visit was a scary $5,000. But If I had put it through my health insurance it would have been a rack rate of $25,000. Because I was a tourist paying now, claiming later, they reduced the rate. I am sure health insurance companies do not pay rack rate prices but I doubt if they pay what I paid.The hospital would not be profitable if they did that. There lies the first problem with privatising hospitals, how do you ensure they don't rip you off? Private hospitals would be good for bettering standards, and paying nurses and doctors better, but who and what determines their prices? Once all hospitals are privatised where is your control and comparison?
The next problem in the US is healthcare Insurance. Its a rip off. What is more Obama even used the IRS as a means to force you to pay money you could not afford or did not have into it. By fining you if you did not have healthcare. More money you did not have.
But then take the salutary lesson of a friend in the US. He got cancer. His policy covered 2 million dollars of treatment. He was left with a stark choice of pay another $500,000 for treatment to finish off his radio therapy and other treatments, or risk death. That is a serious issue in the US, 64% of US personal bankruptcies are due to health care Insurance failing to pay sufficient funds. Americans literally face a decision, die or bankrupt the family. No family should face that. Nye Bevan would roll in his grave.
My friend had a another shock waiting, his premium had now gone up and there was now a huge deductible $50,000 in place for any further cancer treatment. He now has to pay $2500 bill per month for health insurance for his family, which is more than the average take home pay in the USA. Yes my friend was lucky he was a wealthy man. But his plans for the future and college education for his children are now in the greedy coffers of the Health Insurance companies. he is cutting back hard and tightening his belt.
And God help you if you get old in the USA health cover gets harder and harder to find the older you get.
Is that what we want in the UK? I don't think so, we must not let the vultures anywhere near the funding of the NHS.
Branson has also been given an altogether too large remit on the NHS. If he controls every hospital we get a monopoly supplier. That is the tail wagging the dog. Look at car Manufacturers to see how they control that, not letting one dealer group have too many of their franchise outlets. That is what should have been done with Virgin.
Yes there are other issues and problems.
Far too many paper pushing staff achieving nothing but pure cost.
Far too many users who have never paid into the system or worse, are recent migrants who need fixing up due to disease and health problems in their countries of origin. Immigration is certainly one area which if controlled would take a burden off the shoulders the NHS.
I for one then, support completely the altruism of Nye Bevan. When the next mealy mouthed politician speaks about the NHS and the latest scam idea he or she has, bear Nye Bevan in mind and ask what he would do?