Next week sees a state visit to the UK by the clown pretending to be a proper US President, Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. And as befits the flagrant double standards of our free and fearless press, there have been none of the snipes and sneers seen when Barack Obama told them that the UK would be “back of the queue” for a trade deal. That was interference in our democracy. But it isn’t when The Donald does it.
Donald, where's yer hairspray?
Trump, who may be unaware that his surname is, in parts of the UK, slang for “fart”, has been doing plenty of interfering, asserting, just before a Parliamentary by-election, that Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, now Oberscheissenführer of the Brexit Party, and London’s formerly very occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, vying to become Tory leader and Prime Minister, are Very Wonderful People.
What he is also promising is that all-important trade deal, somehow missing the inconvenient fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said it won’t pass Congress unless it respects the Good Friday accords. That trade deal has been talked up by both Farage and Bozza. So it was bound to be discussed when US Ambassador Woody Johnson appeared before the inquisition of the host on The Andy Marr Show™ today.
After a little doublespeak on food standards - suggesting the UK allow in US products because that gave us a “choice” - very Milton Friedman of him - Johnson was asked about healthcare. Marr put it to him that “lots of people are worried that a big free trade deal with America means American pharmaceutical and medical corporations getting a slice of the NHS”. Initially, though, Johnson dismissed the idea.
“Oh I don’t think they’d be put in any particular position regarding that. Your national healthcare service is the pride of the country. It’s a highly emotionally charged issue”. So Marr came at it from a different angle. “Do you feel that healthcare has to be part of the [trade] deal?” Then the answer was a little different. “I think probably the entire economy, in a trade deal all things that are traded will be on the table”. Got that?
Squeaky you've been rumbled finger up the bum time
Andrew Marr had got it. “Which includes healthcare” he put to Johnson, who this time admitted “I would think so”. Have a think about that. “Healthcare” in a UK context means the NHS. It would be up for grabs as part of a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal.
Which means what, exactly? It means the likelihood of our free-at-the-point-of-delivery NHS being effectively abolished in favour of an insurance-based system, as in the USA. That is what Nigel Farage has repeatedly advocated. Yes, Brexit Party voters, I’m looking at you. Prime Minister Bozza might deny any such inclination, but he’s as big a fraud and liar as Mr Thirsty. He’s also rich enough not to care.
Oo-er chaps, Beano Bozza popularity down the chute again. Cripes!
But if we pay less in taxes and keep up the premium payments, it’ll all be all right, won’t it? Well, no it won’t. As Adrian Barker has observed, in the USA “A study done at Harvard University indicates that MEDICAL COSTS is the biggest cause of bankruptcy, representing 62% of all personal bankruptcies. One of the interesting caveats of this study shows that 78% of filers had some form of health insurance”.
How can someone with health insurance be driven to bankruptcy? Simples. Ever heard of “Co-payments”? The insurance doesn’t cover all costs. You’d have to cover part of it - maybe an excess, maybe a proportion of the whole bill for some treatments - yourself. You may have to find part or all of your prescription medication cost yourself, and be charged at that euphemistically-titled market rate. That means it would be a lot more expensive.
Then there is the ultimate get-out clause - “Policy doesn’t cover it”. Not that all those slagging off the NHS and saying it should be binned, because it won’t cover the costs of the latest and most expensive drugs if there is already an established and cheaper product available, will tell you this. It happens. And it would happen here, too.
Still, as Barker also notes, many in the USA have found a way out of that. “DEAD BROKE Takes on a whole new meaning … Bankruptcy is the biggest cause of suicide in the US. THIS the system they are shaping us up for … No NHS? Then it's the American way pay, still die, just bankrupt. 62% due to medical bills”. That is the reality of the US system.
And it’s a system that has a multi-million Dollar lobbying effort behind it. It’s a system endorsed by Astroturfers like the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance. Nigel Farage has endorsed it. And if he becomes Tory leader and takes the UK out of the EU, Bozza will, with the certainty of night following day, be endorsing it too.
That’s the problem, you see - people in power who have so much money they become detached from the everyday reality facing tens of millions of Brits. That’s what makes the Brexit Party an ultimate false prospectus, with the Tories not far behind.
It’s also what makes Brexit a grave threat to the British way of life. Not that Nige and Bozza will admit that, of course. That would involve honesty, and that would never do.
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There's an interesting article and chart about America’s dysfunctional health-care system.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/05/22/republicans-are-struggling-to-fix-americas-dysfunctional-health-care-system
Note: The cost per person, per year
and life expectancy.
The chart takes into account compulsory health payments taken by governments.
Pay approx. $4000 in the UK,
$9000+ in the USA
Die younger in the US.
This is the single biggest issue in regards to Brexit I think and unfortunately it just isn't clicking with the Farage fan club. Turkeys voting for Christmas...
ReplyDeleteI'm 69 with a heart problem and fitted with an implanted cardioverter/defibrillator the current cost of which is £20,000. The device will have to be replaced in 4-5 years time when the battery expires. I'd have no chance of obtaining insurance. So what about all of us who paid 30 -50 years' NI contributions?
ReplyDeleteSorry Pete but it's your own age group who are the problem. Maybe if they pulled their heads out of the Mail and Express we wouldn't be in this mess. The older we get, the more we rely on the NHS but also more likely to support Brexit. I don't understand it either. The media should cover such realities.
ReplyDeleteI don't see what relevance having paid '30-50 years NI' is. That's not how the NHS works. Are you suggesting that I'm less entitled to treatment as I've only paid 10 years so far? I've taken far less out of it than you have so perhaps my net contribution is higher. Perhaps it isn't. It doesn't matter, that's the beauty of it. I hope both you and it are still around at 74 when you need a replacement and I hope it's still around if I need one too.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI'm fully aware of how the NHS works - I was born just a year after its inception together with the Welfare State. My point is, should the current shower succeed in handing our NHS to Trump and his cronies then private insurance would be introduced. Those of us who paid into the system for all of those years can't be expected to pay hundreds per month for private health insurance that most of us will never be offered anyway, especially OAPs living on the State pension. Those like yourself who are working will have the means to deal with private insurance, we don't. Its up to all of us to bring down the Tory government before that nightmare comes to fruition.