MCViewPoint

The number of people waiting for treatment in England has reached unprecedented levels, with a backlog of 7.4 million—about one in eight of the population. Alarmingly, over 371,000 people have been waiting for over a year to receive treatment.

Meanwhile, very little coverage is given to the fact that the lockdown effects killed more people than covid, especially due to delayed treatments from the accumulated backlog. Instead of considering that the NHS’s inability to deal with the healthcare needs of Britain is a flaw in the system, NHS fanatics turn a blind eye.

https://mises.org/wire/british-nhs-more-resembles-statist-cult-advanced-healthcare

Jess Gill

The day after America celebrated its independence and its founding principles of self-governance and liberty, across the pond, Britain paid tribute to its values of collectivism and statism by commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the National Health Service (NHS). Children’s choirs sang “Happy Birthday” at a thanksgiving church service celebrating the NHS at Westminster Abbey. In attendance were the prime minister and the opposition leader, among others. The notion that the NHS is the closest thing the United Kingdom has to a state religion has never been truer.

However, behind the pomp and pageantry, the NHS is a god that has failed. The reality is that the NHS should be one of the United Kingdom’s biggest shames, as it constantly lets down both patients and staff while placing a substantial burden on the taxpayer.

The number of people waiting for treatment in England has reached unprecedented levels, with a backlog of 7.4 million—about one in eight of the population. Alarmingly, over 371,000 people have been waiting for over a year to receive treatment. The UK has significantly fewer hospital beds, doctors, nurses, CT scanners, and MRI units than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. In addition, the UK has the second-highest rate of treatable deaths in Western Europe. How can anyone believe this system deserves to be eulogized?

Yet the NHS worshippers can’t admit that the system is failing as they hang on to the lie that the NHS is an example of socialism working. Instead, they turn to conspiracies, claiming the NHS is failing because the Tories are purposefully underfunding it to push privatization as a viable alternative. This is far from the truth: NHS funding is at record-high levels, above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average.

The argument that the Tories are trying to privatize the NHS has been pushed by mainstream news outlets for over four decades, from the Times in 1980 to the Byline Times in 2023, who claim that this is all a move to transition to a US-style system.

Nevertheless, the truth remains that when compared to not only the United States but also the rest of Europe, the UK continues to exhibit a significant level of statism in its healthcare system. As Dr. Kristian Niemietz, head of political economy of the Institute of Economic Affairs, points out,

See the rest here

Be seeing you