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Americans fire shots at NHS


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The National Health Service has become the butt of increasingly outlandish political attacks in the US as Republicans and conservative campaigners rail against Britain's "socialist" system as part of a tussle to defeat Barack Obama's proposals for broader government involvement in healthcare.Top-ranking Republicans have joined bloggers and well-funded free market organisations in scorning the NHS for its waiting lists and for "rationing" the availability of expensive treatments.As myths and half-truths circulate, British diplomats in the US are treading a delicate line in correcting falsehoods while trying to stay out of a vicious domestic dogfight over the future of American health policy.Slickly produced television advertisements trumpet the alleged failures of the NHS's 61-year tradition of tax-funded healthcare. To the dismay of British healthcare professionals, US critics have accused the service of putting an "Orwellian" financial cap on the value on human life, of allowing elderly people to die untreated and, in one case, for driving a despairing dental patient to mend his teeth with superglue.Having seen his approval ratings drop, Obama is seeking to counter this conservative onslaught by taking his message to the public, with a "town hall" meeting today at a school in New Hampshire.Last week, the most senior Republican on the Senate finance committee, Chuck Grassley, took NHS-baiting to a newly emotive level by claiming that his ailing Democratic colleague, Edward Kennedy, would be left to die untreated from a brain tumour in Britain on the grounds that he would be considered too old to deserve treatment."I don't know for sure," said Grassley. "But I've heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy with a brain tumour, being 77 years old as opposed to being 37 years old, if he were in England, would not be treated for his disease, because end of life – when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems."The degree of misinformation is causing dismay in NHS circles. Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), pointed out that it was utterly false that Kennedy would be left untreated in Britain: "It is neither true nor is it anything you could extrapolate from anything we've ever recommended to the NHS."Others in the US have accused Obama of trying to set up "death panels" to decide who should live and who should die, along the lines of Nice, which determines the cost-effectiveness of NHS drugs.One right-leaning group, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, lists horror stories about British care on its website. An email widely circulated among US voters, of uncertain origin, claims that anyone over 59 in Britain is ineligible for treatment for heart disease.The British embassy in Washington is quietly trying to counter inaccuracies. A spokesman said: "We're keeping a close eye on things and where there's a factually wrong statement, we will take the opportunity to correct people in private. That said, we don't want to get involved in a domestic debate."A $1.2m television advertising campaign bankrolled by the conservative Club for Growth displays images of the union flag and Big Ben while intoning a figure of $22,750. A voiceover says: "In England, government health officials have decided that's how much six months of life is worth. If a medical treatment costs more, you're out of luck."The number is based on a ratio of £30,000 a year used by Nice in its assessment of whether drugs provide value for money. Dillon said this was one of many variables in determining cost-effectiveness of medicines. He said of his body's portrayal in the US: "It's very disappointing and it's not, obviously, the way in which Nice describes itself or the way in which we're perceived in the UK even among those who are disappointed or upset by our decisions."On Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel, the conservative commentator Sean Hannity recently alighted upon the case of Gordon Cook, a security manager from Merseyside, who used superglue to stick a loose crown into his gum because he was unable to find an NHS dentist. The cautionary tale, which was based on a Daily Mail report from 2006, prompted Hannity to warn his viewers: "If the Democrats have their way, get your superglue ready."The broader tone of the US healthcare debate has become increasingly bitter. The former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin last week described president Obama's proposals as "evil", while the radio presenter Rush Limbaugh has compared a logo used for the White House's reform plans to a Nazi swastika. Hecklers have disrupted town hall meetings called to discuss the health reform plans.
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I dont blame themLook at the shitty treatment you get over here now with the deteriorating NHS and you get them take out money from your pay automatically for shitty treatmentAllow being selected by age for ops and being told you got to be put on a list to have a major surgery but you may not make it by the time that comesGood on the yanks

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I dont blame themLook at the shitty treatment you get over here now with the deteriorating NHS and you get them take out money from your pay automatically for shitty treatmentAllow being selected by age for ops and being told you got to be put on a list to have a major surgery but you may not make it by the time that comesGood on the yanks
^_) 'Shitty treatment' or no treatment if you can't afford it, take your pick
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I dont blame themLook at the shitty treatment you get over here now with the deteriorating NHS and you get them take out money from your pay automatically for shitty treatmentAllow being selected by age for ops and being told you got to be put on a list to have a major surgery but you may not make it by the time that comesGood on the yanks
^_) 'Shitty treatment' or no treatment if you can't afford it, take your pick
There point is they like it the way it is and dont want a system were it is selective and it scares them when they look at the NHS which I cant blame them
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I dont blame themLook at the shitty treatment you get over here now with the deteriorating NHS and you get them take out money from your pay automatically for shitty treatmentAllow being selected by age for ops and being told you got to be put on a list to have a major surgery but you may not make it by the time that comesGood on the yanks
^_) 'Shitty treatment' or no treatment if you can't afford it, take your pick
There point is they like it the way it is and dont want a system were it is selective and it scares them when they look at the NHS which I cant blame them
But if they don't like it they can keep their health insurance and go private, while the poorer ppl have access to a wider range of free treatment.
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as a human being and as a person who works in the NHS... its a fantastic achievement which sets Britain on top of the civilised worldby and large the doctors nurses and poeple wokring in the hospitals genuinely care for patients and do a good job bar the african and fili nurses who are sh*tas a capitalist i want it all privatised so as a doctor i can make milions like they do in americastill its something 2 pbe proud of... its easy 2 slag it off bt you'll be grateful when somethin bad happens 2 a member in your familyy and its there
nice post
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americans r f*ckin cunts was watching this sh*t last night on news 24 and the bollocks they were coming up with was making me cringeand they r so gullable made me think wtf how r u the most powerfull country in the worldabout the death clinic bollocks they were going on about in page 16 in that booklet which is nothing like what they r claimingits like they dont care about each other but they want to chant usa usa all the time like they r unitedwho see that women chatting some proper c*nt sh*t about she dont want to see the country turn into russia

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news-graphics-2007-_643378a.gifCancer survival rates in Britain are among the lowest in Europe, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the issue yet produced.England is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care.Survival rates are based on the number of patients who are alive five years after diagnosis and researchers found that, for women, England was the fifth worst in a league of 22 countries. Scotland came bottom. Cancer experts blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists.In total, 52.7pc of women survived for five years after being diagnosed between 2000 and 2002. Only Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Czech Republic and Poland did worse. Just 44.8pc of men survived, putting England in the bottom seven countries.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/156...-in-Europe.html
Enough said
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news-graphics-2007-_643378a.gifCancer survival rates in Britain are among the lowest in Europe, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the issue yet produced.England is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care.Survival rates are based on the number of patients who are alive five years after diagnosis and researchers found that, for women, England was the fifth worst in a league of 22 countries. Scotland came bottom. Cancer experts blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists.In total, 52.7pc of women survived for five years after being diagnosed between 2000 and 2002. Only Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Czech Republic and Poland did worse. Just 44.8pc of men survived, putting England in the bottom seven countries.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/156...-in-Europe.html
Enough said
lol @ thats article being nearly 2 years old,and lmao @ the stats being between 2000 and 2002like what i said before people like you will use anything to try and prove a point
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news-graphics-2007-_643378a.gifCancer survival rates in Britain are among the lowest in Europe, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the issue yet produced.England is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care.Survival rates are based on the number of patients who are alive five years after diagnosis and researchers found that, for women, England was the fifth worst in a league of 22 countries. Scotland came bottom. Cancer experts blamed late diagnosis and long waiting lists.In total, 52.7pc of women survived for five years after being diagnosed between 2000 and 2002. Only Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Czech Republic and Poland did worse. Just 44.8pc of men survived, putting England in the bottom seven countries.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/156...-in-Europe.html
Enough said
lol @ thats article being nearly 2 years old,and lmao @ the stats being between 2000 and 2002like what i said before people like you will use anything to try and prove a point
People like you never provide proof but just say your wrongProve me wrong and bring me stats were it is better today
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Cancer survival rates in Britain among the wost in EuropeBy Daniel MartinLast updated at 7:58 AM on 24th March 2009Britain has the worst cancer survival record in Western Europe - and the figures are much worse than previously thought.Despite Health Service funding tripling under Labour, survival rates are on a par with Poland and the Czech Republic, even though they spend two-thirds less on cancer.A damning league table shows that Britain is 16th out of 19 countries surveyed. Patients in some European countries are 15 per cent more likely to be alive five years after diagnosis.article-0-040F10AD000005DC-408_468x160_popup.jpgThe figures come from the hugely respected Eurocare-4 study, which compared the five-year survival rates of 2.7million adult patients up to 2004.Provisional results released in 2007 showed Britain was lagging behind the rest of Western Europe. But the final calculations, published today in the European Journal of Cancer, show the situation is even worse than feared.Just 41.4 per cent of men and 51.4 per cent of women found to have cancer survive longer than five years after diagnosis - down on the 42 per cent and 53 per cent figures previously reported.
Here you go wright i have done your research for youIts much worse
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Cancer survival rates in Britain among the wost in EuropeBy Daniel MartinLast updated at 7:58 AM on 24th March 2009Britain has the worst cancer survival record in Western Europe - and the figures are much worse than previously thought.Despite Health Service funding tripling under Labour, survival rates are on a par with Poland and the Czech Republic, even though they spend two-thirds less on cancer.A damning league table shows that Britain is 16th out of 19 countries surveyed. Patients in some European countries are 15 per cent more likely to be alive five years after diagnosis.article-0-040F10AD000005DC-408_468x160_popup.jpgThe figures come from the hugely respected Eurocare-4 study, which compared the five-year survival rates of 2.7million adult patients up to 2004.Provisional results released in 2007 showed Britain was lagging behind the rest of Western Europe. But the final calculations, published today in the European Journal of Cancer, show the situation is even worse than feared.Just 41.4 per cent of men and 51.4 per cent of women found to have cancer survive longer than five years after diagnosis - down on the 42 per cent and 53 per cent figures previously reported.
Here you go wright i have done your research for youIts much worse
Why couldn't you just have done that straight off, but anyway your always the one going on about mainstream media sources but then used figures via a telegraph newspaperbut anyway i never disagreed with your argument just the source being used to back it up
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you can get private treatment here too if u can afford it, at least with the NHS, no matter how u want to criticise it, you have a chance of treatmenti dont see the problemthey just want to make money out of poor peoples suffering

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