Roger Gartland, who is a reader of this blog, shared with me yesterday the notes he made from a speech made by Professor Stephen Hawking at the Toyal Societry of Medicine in August 2017, when I also happened to be present as a speaker.
Hawking said at that meeting:
There are two ways to think about a national health care system.
One is that the most humane and civilised system is one in which all people are provided for equally, based only on their needs, no matter who they are, rich or poor, young or old. I believe this, and have made public statements, that we must prevent the establishment of a two tier system with the best medicine for the wealthy and an inferior service for the rest.
The other way to think is a health care system needs to be organised in the most efficient way, so that there is as little waste of labour and resources as possible.
International comparisons indicate that the most efficient way to provide good health care is for services to be publicly funded and publicly run. The more profit is extracted from the system the more private monopolies grow, and the more expensive health care becomes.
For that reason, I have also made public statements that the NHS must be preserved from commercial interests and protected from those who want to privatise it. So, these two things coincide. The most humane system is the most efficient system.
This means that when politicians and private health care industry lobbyists claim that, “we cannot afford the NHS”, this is the exact inversion of the truth. We cannot afford not to have the NHS.
A publicly provided, publicly run system is the most efficient, and therefore the most cost-effective way to provide good health care for all.
He was right then. His message remains true today. His wisdom prevails. But not in Westminster, it seems.
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This all kind of feels like the slow-motion denouement of a disaster movie, all of the problems governments have never addressed in favour of planet and people converging, and seemingly being made deliberately worse. What is the mechanism for getting a fully publicly-funded NHS, that most people want, that many campaigns support, that has been the subject of so many protests, petitions, letters and emails to MPs and government? How can this be made to happen when neither main political party wishes to offer this? I ask in all seriousness because this, and many other horrific things besides (like the apparent race to destroy all life on earth) are so appalling and sad. How do we get governments to act? Mark Fisher, in trying to capture the necessary feeling response to our current plight coined the term “revolutionary pessimism”, that accounts for the hopelessness of a disempowered majority in the face of a brutal, disinterested, nihilistic elite, whilst maintaining a sense of what the task ahead will entail if we are to have a better world.
A proper understanding of MMT would help
That is why I am offering one this week
To spell out a couple of the obvious issues: large clothing retailers can provide well for people of average size. They have no need to cater for those of other dimensions. A compassionate health service must provide for everyone.
In that vein, routines that cater for a majority – such as cateract surgery, have been privatised (to some extent?). One suspects that the more difficult cases – that is the more costly cases – remain the responsibility of the underfunded NHS.
That said, I have to admit but it was nice to be offered a cup of coffee and a biscuit on arrival for my treatment. A well-funded health service could provide the same. The beautifully printed advertisement and the ballpoint pen … indicated that the contract was too generous.
Insurance premiums are usually affordable for people who retain well-paid jobs but health is unpredictable. Health costs often bankrupt Americans with their private system.
Cherry picking, it’s called
It’s worth considering that a private health care system like the U.S. model might have made life harder for one of our greatest public intellectuals/scientists and stifled his progress and even his emergence.
Those in the U.S and elsewhere do not get this at all.
And neither it seems does Laboured Stymied and Wes ‘Bleating’ these days
All we’ll end up being is governed and informed by a very wealthy but limited gene pool both in diversity and capability. Only the inferior will be allowed to thrive.
What a shocking thought eh?
A straightforward hyperbole free assessment, and very easy to understand. I’ve had a few discussions about the NHS over the years, all the pro privatisation types have to offer is increased efficiency without ever tackling the issue of removing money from the system in profit form. Even with the backdrop of some spectacular on-going failures like water, rail and energy the conviction remains. Personally I’m sure that those in favour of privatisation know that it would be a disaster for those using the NHS but it would be a bonanza for the extractors.
All we need to do is keep talking. Pity Roger and David counldn’t manage it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVzM6cS1iME
Here is Hawking’s talk to TalkNHS, the quoted paragraph is at 5:36m, and Richard gets a mention right at the very beginning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp71UWtHVKE
This is part of The Great NHS Heist Documentary which explains how privatisation is already well underway.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thegreatnhsheist
Also recommended: How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps by Dr Youssef El-Gingihy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Dismantle-Easy-Steps-second/dp/1789041783/
Thanks
Further to Stephen Hawkins’s pertinent (and accurate comments), if I’ve posted this before on the destructive effects of the US healthcare funding system, apologies.
If I haven’t, then read it with ‘fear and trembling:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/private-equity-healthcare?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&s=03#Echobox=1679544702
As to its effect, read this quotation
“April 13, 2023 – U.S. life expectancy has declined to 76.4 years, the shortest it’s been in nearly two decades, according to December data from the CDC”
from the following:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/whats-behind-shocking-u-s-life-expectancy-decline-and-what-to-do-about-it/#:~:text=April%2013%2C%202023%20%E2%80%93%20U.S.%20life,December%20data%20from%20the%20CDC
The rich are almost literally devouring 5he poor on the altar of their sociopathic greed.