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Health Care Anxieties in the UK

By on May 28, 2012

My recent visit to the United Kingdom was full of surprises. One of them was the discovery that though they have a popular national health care system, people there are still worried about coverage and costs.

Several people I encountered are concerned that the coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats led by Tory Prime Minister David Cameron are looking for ways to sneak the trojan horse of privatization through under the rubric of greater efficiency. The post war Labour government of Clement Attlee passed a national health service system through Parliament in the 1940’s, and even Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady and warrior queen of anti-Socialism, was unable to undo it. It seems unlikely that the current resident of Number 10 Downing Street, no iron butterfly himself, would succeed where the woman of steel did not.

 

Now as that country tries to recover from the Great Recession of 2008, Conservatives are pushing austerity as the path to recovery and slashing costs and services government provides. The Liberal Democrats under Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg have put the brakes on the turn to the right, but voters are still anxious, and are now caught up in the Rupert Murdoch News of the World Phone Hacking scandal. It has been quite a show seeing Murdoch, his son, Tony Blair and soon embattled Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt on the stand facing tough questioning. It is getting larger audiences than Britain’s Got Talent and Come Dine With Me, a snarky reality show of amateur chefs dissing one another.

The inquiry of Lord Justice Levison into the scandal has brought considerable embarrassment to the Cameron government. Nick Clegg looks especially despondent when the topic arises. The upshot of all this was severe losses earlier this month for both the Tories and Social Democrats in local elections. One Social Democrat I spoke to said she couldn’t vote for her party this time, because it meant a vote for the Tories, who want Cameron to ignore Clegg and get on with it.

Britain does not like it that their fortunes are tied so closely to Europe’s and the euro, but there is little they can do about it. The change of government in France and Greece’s dance on the precipice eclipse any news from the States. The coalition is still in control in Parliament but the country views Cameron as having one foot on a banana peel these days. The economy has not done as well as the American economy in the past four years, and Labour is keeping up a steady drum beat of “You Posh boys are out of touch with the reality of working people.” It seems to be having the desired effect, especially when Tory backbenchers join in.

 

Tinkering with the national health system, which has had its problems, would seem to be off the table for the government at this time. The costs of specialty care and hospitalizations are especially troublesome. It is intriguing to observe that while disgruntled Britons are flirting with a turn to the left to solve their problems in the future, disgruntled voters here are flirting with a return to the right.

 

The Republicans have crowned their candidate and are searching for an issue with traction. So far Romney has based his health policy on criticism of Obama. That is not a blueprint for change. It may not even a good fit for the one time health reformer now nihilist.

He says on Day One he will repeal reform and resort to “common sense” measures. If it were that simple, someone would have done it long ago. The search goes on. Meanwhile England will be celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Summer Olympics. Over here, we have six more months of similar chatter to endure before the election finally arrives.

Civilization and its discontents.

 

Tom Godfrey

 

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