And the blows keep on coming
Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by Handbaglady in Health, News
The NHS finds itself slap bang in the middle of a political storm in the US as Republicans use our healthcare system to attack President Obama’s proposals for broader government involvement in healthcare provision.
The trouble is that arguments are becoming more and more outlandish, emotive and downright inaccurate. Republican Chuck Grassley (the most senior Republican on the Senate finance committee) has taken NHS-bashing to a new level by claiming that Democrat Edward Kennedy would be left to die in Britain from a brain tumour because he is considered too old to merit any kind of treatment.
“I don’t know for sure” says Grassley, “But I’ve heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy, with a brain tumour, being 77 years old as opposed to being 37 years old, if he were in England, would not be treated for his disease, because end of life – when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems”. The key words in this quote, and indeed this whole debate, are the first five: “I don’t know for sure” and there is the root of the problem; mistruths and misinformation are being spouted and as a consequence causing a whole lot of damage to the already beleaguered reputation of the NHS. Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive of NICE has responded that Grassley’s statement was false: “It is neither true nor is it anything you could extrapolate from anything we’ve ever recommended to the NHS”. But the damage is done and the falsehood is out there, being digested and believed by many Americans.
A $1.2 million TV advertising campaign, funded by the conservative Club for Growth is running which solely focuses on NHS failures. They accuse the NHS of putting an ‘Orwellian’ financial cap on the value of human life.
US News channel Fox News channel recently reported the case of Gordon Cook from Merseyside who used superglue to fix his own teeth because he couldn’t find a NHS dentist – the report was based on a Daily Mail report from 2006…conservative commentator Sean Hannity warned viewers: “If the Democrats have their way, get your superglue ready”.
And finally, a real corker, one conservative group for patients’ rights lists NHS horror stories on its website and claims that anyone over the age of 59 in Britain is ineligible for heart disease treatment.
All these examples serve to shape US opinion and paint an inaccurate picture of healthcare in this country.
President Obama’s honeymoon period is well and truly over as he tries to negotiate the notorious minefield of US healthcare. Having seen his approval ratings drop, Obama has taken offensive action and held a ‘town hall’ meeting yesterday in New Hampshire to attempt to stem the conservative attack.
I fully understand the need for diplomacy in this issue and that British diplomats want to stay out of a domestic dispute but I also feel that these half truths and inaccuracies should be addressed and corrected more forcefully. The American public are being fed misinformation and political propaganda about our healthcare system and it makes me angry that the NHS (although far from perfect) is yet again under fire, from the other side of the pond with poorly researched and incorrect arguments. The UK actually spends less on healthcare but has a higher life expectancy than the US and the WHO ranks our healthcare system as 18th in the world – the US sits at 37th place. The British Medical Association has said that its members are sceptical about the US approach to medicine; many members are appalled that there are so many people who don’t have access to healthcare. The majority of British doctors have consistently supported public provision of healthcare and I for one am proud of the fact that every single person in this country has access to free healthcare. It would be nice to hear diplomats correct the inaccuracies much more loudly and defend a great institution.
Handbaglady
13. Aug, 2009
Hats off to Professor Stephen Hawking who has defended the NHS from recent American attacks. He states “I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS…I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.” I am so pleased that a high profile figure has seen fit to speak out about this subject.
Handbaglady
20. Aug, 2009
It’s great to see that since my last post there has been an outpouring of support for the NHS. The Department of Health has fought back to address the ‘inaccuracies and myths’ being spouted across the pond by some individuals… The DH press officer Andrew Sharratt led the UK response to criticism, along with Lord Darzi who authored an article in The Washington Post and statements were also released by Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
On the social media front, Gordon and Sarah Brown tweeted message of support for the NHS, Graham Lineham first used #welovenhs on his Twitter feed. Since then the hashtag has been used 36,989 times.