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Jewish World Review July 11, 2013/ 4 Menachem-Av, 5773 NHS lessons for Obamacare By Cal Thomas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
FT. WILLIAM, "The main problem is that the NHS is seen as free on delivery to everybody," Farrington said. "It is not free. The clinicians have not been trained to think about finance and budgetary control as important. For example, overseas citizens can obtain an NHS number when they visit a doctor's office. This number is seen as a passport to full NHS care, including operations and aftercare because the clinicians say it is not their job to sort out who is eligible and who is not. In this way, billions of pounds are spent on noneligible folk. ... Word has got round in Obama claims that won't happen here. "The reforms I am proposing," he said in 2009, "would not apply to those who are here illegally." Partly true. With Obamacare, noncitizens would not be covered and would not be subject to the individual mandate, but they could still walk into any ER and get treated on the taxpayer's dime. With such open-ended spending in the UK, the predictable has occurred. The NHS faces a 30 billion pound deficit by 2020 and, according to
Each time I visit the UK I read about NHS horror stories. The Scottish Daily Mail reported on three brutal killings that might have been prevented were it not for a "catalogue of failings by a (NHS-operated) mental health trust." One of the men had been refused treatment for failing to register with a local doctor. An investigation by the One health minister referred to scandals and cover-ups in patient deaths at two hospitals as part of a "rotten culture" in the NHS. In March, the Daily Mail reported "Nearly 1,200 people have starved to death in NHS hospitals" because "nurses are too busy to feed patients." At
Why isn't this a lesson for the U.S.? Why do people believe government is more competent than the private sector, despite numerous examples to the contrary? The Obama administration is pressing ahead with implementing America's version of the NHS, no doubt expecting different results. Though postponing the employer mandate until 2015, beginning He speaks from experience. Is anyone in America listening?
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JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.
© 2011, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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