General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My wife will get her meds [View all]Denzil_DC
(7,241 posts)The NHS is Europe's largest employer, and demands on it from patients are increasing as folks live longer and more advanced medicines and treatments become available. This inevitably leads to "rationing" in some respects. All systems do it, none have a bottomless purse.
The NHS isn't the only healthcare model out there, and not necessarily one the US should copy. The US system will evolve over the years, like every other, unless people go along with moves to abandon positive reforms in the face of problems. Whether it'll end up improving is up to the people and the politicians they elect.
The important thing, IMO, in either country, is to resist calls to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Despite constant griping in the UK media and the budget cuts and management snafus over the years, overt moves to go for total privatization would be electoral suicide. Instead, in the UK the danger is the constant drip-drip of partial privatization (not just under the Tories - Labour has been guilty of mismanagement too) and the increasing involvement of for-profit healthcare, which is gradually devaluing and degrading the service. This is being resisted at regional levels, and the problems are generally worst in England.