Today, Dave Snowden blogged about a personal experience with National Health Insurance in the UK, which I urge you to read. His conclusion, with which I agree is:
”Critically I have no bill, no money to pay. I didn’t sit in the hospital worrying about a fast discharge or maybe compromising on tests for financial reasons. Free at the point of entry health provision is a basic test of civilisation and humanity in any society.”
Indeed. And for all the enthusiasm many in America feel about President Obama’s impending health legislation, and for all that it would create a system in which all Americans will have access to the equivalent of the current Medicare system now restricted to older Americans, it will still not fulfill the standard of “free at the point of entry health provision . . .” So, even if The Administration’s legislation passes in something like its present form, the health care system in the US will still not meet the “basic test of civilisation and humanity in any society.”