If there is anyone out there who still believes Congress should approve legislation mandating a huge bureaucracy controlling all health programs in the U.S., he or she should take a look at the monstrosity of a national health agency that exists in Great Britain. It would be a catastrophe if copied by the U.S.
The British program has virtually come to a standstill because of overcrowded hospitals and clinics and beleaguered doctors, who cannot control the rush of “patients” for minor illnesses or imagined physical problems.
A Reuters report recently detailed the mess the British system is in. Because of the overcrowding, many patients cannot get needed surgery, and they are forced to go to other countries, including the U.S., to get the care they need. Yet, that is exactly the kind of a system proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.
Instead of privatizing its health-care system — as it should have done long ago — the British have created another agency called Operations Abroad. The new agency has developed what is called “health tourism.” It arranges the travel of British patients to hospitals in other countries so that they can get the surgery and medical treatment unavailable at home in the overcrowded hospitals. And the British system picks up all the expenses! Little wonder that Britain’s national health system is breaking down under the heavy costs it is absorbing.
At one point last year, at least 250,000 Britons in need of health care or surgery were on the waiting list for non-emergency operations, such as hip replacements. And large numbers have been transferred to hospitals in other countries, mainly the U.S. They are not being sent to Canada, because that country has an overcrowded problem, too, thanks to adoption of a system similar to Great Britain’s.
In the wake of the terrible conditions in Britain and Canada — and other nations that have adopted state-run health care — doctors have been leaving in droves for the U.S. and other countries that still have a privately run health program. When will the British citizens come to their senses and return to a private system that will keep its doctors at home and bring stability to its health program?
An official at Operations Abroad said it “could offer 200,000 operations a year to British patients via a network of 50 hospitals in 21 countries from Italy to Egypt or Cuba, and including the U.S. Costs are normally 20 percent cheaper than in British hospitals.”
The American system, controlled mainly by private health institutions, looks extremely good compared to the government-operated programs in Britain and Scandinavian nations. The only major improvement would come with the adoption of an idea I have proposed: Turn the entire health-care program over to the medical profession, with the federal government serving only as watchdog.