The Brits are gearing up for an election across the pond, and it looks like a nasty one thanks to all the Brexit mess. (The British may be polite, but British politics aren't.) The good thing about British elections, however, is they're usually over much faster than our own.
Imagine if candidates just campaigned a month or two instead of stretching it out for two whole years--or longer. In the words of Papa Hemingway, "Isn't it nice to think so?" If you'll remember, a former governor of Arkansas, who we just saw the other day, didn't announce his candidacy for president until October 1991. For the 1992 election. That's a short, sweet, streamlined, 13-month campaign--as compared to the expanded, not to say distended, campaigns of today.
Supposedly, one of the hot topics in the British campaign is the American interest in its National Health System. The papers across the pond have leaked documents of trade officials discussing the NHS, and how the Americans would like to get in on some of the business of selling insurance and medical devices, and millions of other things, as part of a post-Brexit deal. ("The business of America is business."--C. Coolidge)
The current president of the United States, however, put a stop to those rumors, or tried his best, no matter what his trade reps are doing behind the scenes. Here's more from The New York Post:
"'No, not at all. I have nothing to do with it. Never even thought about it, honestly,' said President Trump, who is in Britain for the NATO summit. 'We have absolutely nothing to do with it, and we wouldn't want to. If you handed it to us on a silver platter, we'd want nothing to do with it.'"
That's emphatic, as is usual for this president. Whether anybody should take the statement literally, or just "seriously" as his aides have suggested before, is a wild guess. Anybody's wild guess.
But why would Americans want any part of the so-called "universal" public health nightmare in Britain?
(Just for the record, how hubristic are the English-speaking peoples? Universal? Are we offering health care for those living near Alpha Centauri?)
Forbes has some startling stats about Britain's NHS service. Primarily, that "nearly a quarter of a million British patients have been waiting more than six months to receive planned medical treatment . . . ."
This is what can happen when the government takes 100 percent control of a health-care system. Efficiency goes the way of The Four Humors. Maybe everyone does have theoretical access to health care, but what happens when that access remains only theoretical?
"According to January NHS England data, almost 25 percent of cancer patients didn't start treatment on time despite an urgent referral by their primary care doctor. That's the worst performance since records began in 2009," Forbes reported.
And if the Brits really do want U.S. corporations to bring some free market magic to their struggling system, we certainly don't blame them. All things considered, though, we'll pass. Our attitude is the same as Canadian pharmacies when asked if they wanted U.S. citizens coming across the border to purchase their finite supply of drugs for cheaper prices: No thanks. We have our hands full.
But if they want to send over any secret unreleased Beatles tracks we'll happily take those. And any early blues recordings by the Stones.
God save the queen. But they can keep the NHS.
Editorial on 12/07/2019