The Guardian: A eulogy to the NHS...

[xocet]

Here is an article that describes access to healthcare before the creation of and after the creation of the NHS in the UK - the article goes on to speak of some current changes in healthcare in the UK:

A eulogy to the NHS: What happened to the world my generation built?
In 1926, Harry Leslie Smith's sister died of TB in a workhouse infirmary, too poor for proper medical care. In 1948, the creation of the NHS put a stop to all that. In an extract from his new book, Harry's Last Stand, he describes his despair at the coalition's dismantling of the welfare state

Harry Leslie Smith
The Guardian, Wednesday 4 June 2014 14.03 EDT

...

As I convalesced, I was gobsmacked at the great consequences of free health care and the potential it offered to improve our society. It was a transformational shift in how we as a country viewed our fellow citizens. The creation of the NHS made us understand that we were in truth our brother's keeper, and that taxation benefits everyone through maintaining not just our roads and sewers but the health of our children, workers and elderly.

To me, the introduction of free health care was the first brick laid on the road to the social welfare state. So it has always been difficult for me to listen to politicians, proud possessors of health insurance and shares in private health care companies, when they talk about how the health service that we fought so hard to build must change. The coalition government's Health and Social Care Act will create a two-tier health care system. This act will see the NHS stripped down like a derelict house is by criminals for copper wiring.

Ukip has even proposed that A&E patients should have the right to buy their way to the front of the queue, while in Merseyside a private for-profit cancer clinic has set up shop under the NHS umbrella. Where will all of this end? What will be given the greatest priority in a new health care system that sends every service, from blood work to chemotherapy, out to the lowest bid tender?

It ends where I began my life – in a Britain that believed health care depended on your social status. So if you were rich and insured you received timely medical treatment, while the rest of the country got the drippings. One-fifth of the lords who voted in the controversial act – which provides a gateway to privatise our health care system – were found to have connections to private health care companies. If that doesn't make you angry, nothing will.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/04/coalition-attacks-nhs-return-britain-age-workhouse

[enlightenment]

1. A must read.

Harry Leslie Smith, like Tony Benn, puts in eloquent phrase the things I believe and I thank him each time I read his comments.

[Prophet 451]

2. The Tories should burn

They promised no major changes while they were campaigning (which might mean nothing in the US but trying to keep your campaign promises is the norm here). As soon as they get in power, they start dismantling it. I wish a great deal of severe violence upon them.

[LongTomH]

3. I hope that "Harry's Last Stand" sparks a backlash against the Shock Doctrine policies of the.......

.....UK's Coalition Government.