English conservatives trying to privatize their country's health care system
It would mean huge profits for the health care industry and a terrible decline in care for all but the wealthy.
Grim Meathook Future, English style - Charlie's Diary
I am very lucky; I live in Scotland, where healthcare is a fully devolved issue under the control of the Scottish parliament.
If I lived in England, though, I would be getting alarmed right now.
If you live in England (and not under a rock) you can't possibly be unaware of the Health and Social Care Bill (2011) that is working its way through parliament. Short version for foreigners: the Conservatives are unhappy to be presiding over a socialist healthcare system that works, so they've decided to break it by turning it into a single payer insurance system. Or so they say: the truth is actually rather worse.
Various medical folks have spoken out against it, including the Royal College of Surgeons, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing ... it's not a short list.
. . .
Yes, it's worse than you thought. They're not merely trying to turn the NHS into a single-payer insurance system, they're trying to turn it into a copy of the most notoriously bad private healthcare system in the world (as measured by the ratio of inputs to outcomes).
. . .