What, so funneling tax money into a Medicaid system that does nothing but pay for death-threatening emergency room visits by uninsured people is better? At least in the NHS system there is a minimum floor of care provided, and if you were to theoretically compare that floor to America's floor, for the masses NHS has marble and America's squeaking by with 2 cent a sq. foot puke green linoleum.
Not saying it's better in NHS for those who can afford a higher standard of health care or services who end up getting double taxed paying both their NHS contributions and then for their private services, but you're lying to yourself if you don't think the same thing is happening in America with Medicaid, hospitals almost going bankrupt because the services they provide being lapped up by the free side without the income from the private side, insurance premiums being so perniciously high that doctors retire instead of pay, ect etc.
I wrote my thesis on welfare systems of the world, analyzing both the Norwegian/Swedish welfare state, the Germanic systems, American, post-Communist countries, and of course, British systems of welfare benefits and taxation/payment programs. If you want to talk semantics, talk semantics, talk pros and cons, for both things you are contrasting. Your "research" thus quoted focuses on the nugatory, the people who've had problems - unfortunately, bureaucracy is not limited to the NHS - insurance companies are a ridiculous bureaucracy, look at all of us who tried to get coverage but didn't! I'm lucky, I had a good paying job last summer, had money saved up, and I'm starting my professional career in September, but I guarantee most people in my age group wouldn't be able to hand over 20K at this point and go for it. It's all what your society becomes accustomed to. Make a column and compare/contrast American vs. NHS for the same working classes Meryaten is referring to, and you might find the results surprising. As for anecdotal evidence, my older sister requires a liver transplant here in the States. She has no insurance. She has no money. She will die without the transplant. She's on a waiting list, and will get one eventually, but my mother will then be using her retirement money to pay for it. But no one here will do a story on my sister, either, will they, because the common view is that she should get insurance, should work for insurance, and so forth, so it's her fault she's uninsured. No big company to blame for not getting services = no media story.
Sorry for the thread hijack, Louise. It just really ticks me off when people take attitude over one or two phrases and justify a whole system.
urmm hello, i had it taken out weeks ago!! (he had my notes)
