Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

As a major beneficiary of the NHS I am shocked at the cost of Insulin in the US compared to that in other countries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47491964

A salutary lesson for those who criticise the NHS and yearn for a free market in the provision of health.


BTW I am not diabetic.

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Almost nobody yearns for an American system in the UK. Those who call for the NHS to be exposed to the market aren’t generally also calling for the dismantling of the principle of free at point of use. They’re calling for market competition at points within the system where it will drive efficiency.

The American system is obscene, and results in startling levels of health inequality in the world’s richest economy, where people ought to have a right to expect the best.

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Yes, just like exposing Royal Mail to the free market, driving efficiencies in that business resulted in the cherry picking of the profitable parts of a universal service and suddenly prices for 1st and 2nd class mail rocket and of course we can "trust" these providers not to make a mistake in setting regulated prices see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47331801.

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

There are many reasons to be glad not to live in the he US. E.g. The President is obsessed with walls, couldn't give a toss about healthcare....

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Letters cost more because the unit cost has skyrocketed, what with us all going paperless. Competition in the small parcels sector has worked brilliantly, even for us out in the sticks where any of half a dozen couriers bring us packages (but hardly any come via the useless Parcel Farce service, which deserves to die on its arse).

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

At least my parcels from PF end up at my local sorting office if I am out, unlike some other private run companies when they deliver e.g. thrown over my rear gate or left by the front door for anyone light fingered to nick it.

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Whereas out here, the PF driver is a lazy git who just takes the parcel to the local sorting office and puts the “sorry I missed you” card in the mail bag, so the post man delivers it the next day :rolleyes:

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Someone's really got the hump with Parcel Force.

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

And yet who do we keep exposing our service to, who do we keep inviting to assist with it and who is demanding access to it as part of any trade deal, we might not yearn for them but they're going to have a big say in it's future

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

The people in China pay more for Insulin than Australians, so how is a capitalist system to blame?


People are demanding different types (fast/slow acting, long lasting) and different delivery systems.

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Also producing the least efficient service at the same time. When 30% of the US health care cost is in Administering insurance payments, the system is borked.

Yet for some reason the Tories seem to love these profit driven health care providers.

Why they cannot look at more cost effective efficient EU systems I do not know?

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Maybe because 3 companies manufacture 90% of all the world’s insulin, and they set the prices in each market?

https://www.t1international.com/blog...-so-expensive/ The Australian government subsidises their insulin.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...2eb3e235657c6a

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Frederick Banting gave insulin to the world for free as he recognised the benefit to mankind not so three companies could make fortunes out of sick people

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

Why don't other companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer enter the market then, assuming great profits are to be had if there are monopoly providers setting prices?

Re: Glad I don't live in the US of A
 

I don’t think proposals to Americanise our health system have ever gone further than the occasional fringe meeting at party conference. You have to bear in mind that “Tories want to privatise the NHS” is a standard, dog-whistle Labour attack line. It has no basis in fact, as is evidenced by the fact that they’ve not done it, nor even proposed it, despite there being a Tory PM and health secretary for 27 of the last 40 years.

Nobody, neither Labour nor Tory, ever proposes looking closely at the various systems operating in Europe because most of them use co-payment, or privately-run hospitals, or both. Despite, as you say, being effective ways of reducing waste and increasing efficiency, such things are shibboleth in British politics, where the NHS is sacrosanct and therefore doomed to struggle valiantly on in more or less its current form.