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NHS was a great initiative and idea!! I'm not advocating against public healthcare, at all. I'm saying is that it's not surprising it became underfunded - there
by virgilp 5y ago
NHS was a great initiative and idea!! I'm not advocating against public healthcare, at all. I'm saying is that it's not surprising it became underfunded - there needs to be constant effort to prevent (or compensate) that tendency, because it _is_ the natural tendency of such systems.
- ben_w 5y agoFair enough, I assumed you were trying to differentiate it from private sector given the use of the quote about communism :)
- virgilp 5y agoIt's clear that a strong public system is needed, to keep the private ones in check. But e.g. Italy shows that they can co-exist well, and maybe that's a better solution?
- ben_w 5y agoNo doubt. I know nothing of the Italian system; I’m in Germany now, which seems to be not just what all the left wingers I know in the U.K. are afraid the Tories want to do to the NHS, and what all the right wingers in the USA have been complaining about when they say Obamacare is too socialist, and what the one British anarcho-capitalist I knew didn’t like about UK National insurance: there are a bunch of private healthcare providers, insurance of some sort is mandatory, the providers don’t have clear differences beyond branding, it’s not called “a tax” despite being on end of year tax forms, and rich people are allowed to do some sort of shenanigans that makes it cheaper. But… it works. The NHS is cheaper, but — and here I wander dangerously into opinion — I suspect that’s short-term benefits with long-term problems which will bite the U.K. in the backside rather than better overall cost-benefit decisions.