I have been enthralled at the online debate over the credentials or perils of the NHS. In case you are unfamiliar with the story, the NHS has been picked on by right wing conservatives in America because Barack Obama plans to introduce universal health care.
Conservatives hold up the NHS as an example and say: “this is why we do not want universal healthcare”. They have also been saying other things like the NHS has death panels, which decide whether people live or die (a reference to NICE); you will be refused heart treatment if you are over the age of 55; and even that Stephen Hawking would have died had he been British.
The last one is particularly distasteful. I can understand people spreading half truths and lies about institutions. But telling blatant falsehoods about people who are alive and well is rather foolish. Stephen Hawking is, after all, British. He has also been cared for many years under the auspices of the NHS. So the right wing claim in America is exposed as a blatant lie. The lies keep going all the way to the top. Even Sarah Palin was at it.
The blogging scene went in to over load, along with Twitter. Everyone from nurses, to doctors, to Gordon Brown was out there defending the NHS. I was out there too, reading many of the comments. I was shocked to discover an attitude that I consider to be alien. The following is an extract by a blogger who calls himself John Galt:
“People working at Walmart shouldn’t get health care, just like they shouldn’t get paid more than a few quarters an hour. What do they do that can’t be done by people with frontal lobotomies? Anything? They need to earn their pay. You have to pay for food, you have to pay for shelter, you have to pay for doctor’s visits.”
He then goes on argue that the 46 million people who do not have health care in the US is a way of reducing the surplus population. The astounding thing is that he is by no means alone. There is an army of people who are willing to put forward medieval arguments like this one.
The repercussions from these debates have made there way across the pond too. Not one, but two Conservative MEP’s, Danniel Hannan and Roger Helmer, lined up with the right wing in America by rubbishing the NHS. Danniel Hannan said he would not wish the NHS on anyone.
This must infuriate David Cameron. Who has made a point about saying the Conservative party is the party of the NHS. It probably stung him more because Cameron had a disabled son, Ivan, who tragically lost his life earlier this year. He recognises the value of the NHS.
I think the vast majority of people in this country cherish the NHS. Many complain about it. Many have bad things to say about it. But it remains a part of the fabric of this country. I find the right wings attempt in the US of using the NHS as a means to scupper Obama’s healthcare reforms insulting. The NHS remains the Holy Grail in British politics. Mess with it at your peril.
By Joe Masi
