From The Sunday Times on the UK's government controlled healthcare system. (That would be the London Times, not the state-controlled NYT.)
Here's Marie Woolf:
THE National Health Service has spent £1.5m paying for hundreds of its staff to have private health treatment so they can leapfrog their own waiting lists.
More than 3,000 staff, including doctors and nurses, have gone private at the taxpayers’ expense in the past three years because the queues at the clinics and hospitals where they work are too long.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information act show that NHS administrative staff, paramedics and ambulance drivers have also been given free private healthcare. This has covered physiotherapy, osteopathy, psychiatric care and counselling — all widely available on the NHS.
“It simply isn’t fair to have one service for staff and another for everyone else,” said Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, who obtained the figures.
More than 3,000 staff, including doctors and nurses, have gone private at the taxpayers’ expense in the past three years because the queues at the clinics and hospitals where they work are too long.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information act show that NHS administrative staff, paramedics and ambulance drivers have also been given free private healthcare. This has covered physiotherapy, osteopathy, psychiatric care and counselling — all widely available on the NHS.
“It simply isn’t fair to have one service for staff and another for everyone else,” said Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, who obtained the figures.
We're not discussing fair and unfair. We're discussing what happens when government controls healthcare. For instance, under Obamacare, our Congress will get to keep its Cadillac plan.
“If the NHS has to circumvent their own waiting lists the system isn’t working well enough. It’s an admission by the NHS that their own system isn’t able to respond to the mass of people desperate to get back to work.”
The number of health service employees sent to private healthcare facilities has more than doubled in the past three years.
The number of health service employees sent to private healthcare facilities has more than doubled in the past three years.
But but but but but.....why can't the British doctors and nurses and paramedics and ambulance drivers just wait in line with everyone else, the way we do at the Department Of Motor Vehicles, or the Post Office, or a V.A. Hospital?
The health department defended the practice and said sending doctors, nurses and other key staff for private treatment helped to get them back to work.
“If trusts want to get their staff back to work more quickly they can’t jump NHS waiting lists, so going private is an option,” said the spokesman.
“There is evidence that early intervention in tackling sickness absence enables staff to return to work more quickly.
“If trusts want to get their staff back to work more quickly they can’t jump NHS waiting lists, so going private is an option,” said the spokesman.
“There is evidence that early intervention in tackling sickness absence enables staff to return to work more quickly.
Oh. Everyone is equal. But some are more equal than others. I wonder if this is the system The Queen uses....
Picture of people waiting in line forever came from here.
1 comment:
The obvious argument is that health care workers have to be healthy in order to take care of everyone else. I believe this was the reason given when local health departments ignored the CDC guidelines that said to use the first shipments of H1N1 vaccine on children, and instead they chose to vaccinate health care workers and first responders.
I feel certain that our government will make a similar argument, that we need them to have the very best and most expedient health care, so they can continue to run our great country (into the ground).
I wonder, will members of Congress be subject to the 40% excise tax on Cadillac plans?
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