Oh, America, how you fail to woo me with your healthcare system

(c) Comedy Nose

‘Just look at their teeth,’ said the American guy. Frankly, his teeth were hardly award winning, and I’m convinced Amanda Holden would beat him in a shiny teeth competition. The row over the NHS has become personal.

I intended to defend Daniel Hannan though, on the basis that our system isn’t perfect. Watching the interview he gives, I no longer wish to do so. In his words, the NHS ‘puts the powers of life and death in the hands of a state bureaucracy.’

I take it that Mr Hannan believes it would be better for life and death to be controlled by the size of one’s wallet. I strongly support Labour for once over this and believe the Americans are wrong to attack our system so viriluntly. It may not be perfect, but it’s better than what they have. We have a system based on need rather than wealth status quo. I think we conclusively win the moral war.

From personal experience, I recall the NHS in 1997 before Labour came to power. Since then, it’s the one area in which they have performed spectacularly well. In the US you may be able to afford fancy high class healthcare, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but in this country you can do the same. We have private practitioners, whom many would go to if they could afford it.

Hannan argues that should you do this, the NHS bump you off their list. Can you blame them? Why have a wealthy socialite taking up a place in a queue that they don’t even want that much when a needy, elderly person may be in desperate need of the same treatment?

To measure relative health outcomes, consider swine flu. In the USA, there have been 43,852 laboratory confirmed cases and 477 deaths (1 in 91). Canada: 11,976 cases, 67 deaths (in in 178). The UK: 12,903 cases, 49 deaths (1 in 263). Israel: 2148 cases, 8 deaths (1 in 268). Australia: 28,987 cases, 102 deaths (1 in 284). France: 1,125cases, 1 death (1 in 1125). Netherlands: 1473 cases, 1 death. Italy: 1238 cases, 0 deaths. Germany: 11,493 cases, 0 deaths. Norway, Denmark and Sweden combined: 1914 cases, 0 deaths.

Compared to 11 welfare states, the US scores poorly in fighting swine flu. Is this a coincidence? Even Mexico has a lower cases to mortality ratio. The US is currently ranked 37th by the World Health Organisation for its healthcare system, just behind Dominica and just ahead of Slovenia, compared to the UK’s 18th place. The US ranks 24th for life expectancy, and in terms of happiness it came 23rd in a 2006 study, largely due to its poor healthcare.

The truth is I believe that the US lags behind the world on some scores due to the fact that a war has never been fought on its territory. Socialism is still a dirty word there, with their politics dominated by centrists and conservatives; Europe was ravaged by war twice this century and it is unsurprising that a run down population saw some positives in socialism. It’s not all bad, after all. The USA is still some way behind on some measures because their population has, by and large, never had to suffer the way the Europeans’ have through rationing or seeing their homes destroyed and friends killed in war on the scale that their Western counterparts have. We should remember this, and not castigate the Americans too much – their mentality is much like ours prior to the Great War. But they’ll get there in the end, it is a good nation made up of good people. Even George Dubya.

I need not ram the dagger any further, the point is made. I would never be forthright in my defence of Labour unless they were quite obviously correct. On this issue, they are. Those of us on the right of the political spectrum should leave healthcare to the socialists. It’s what they do well. The US system just does not work as well as the British system, unless you’re rich. That says it all, doesn’t it?