U.K. looking for ways to "decentralize" their failing National Health Care.

[Guest]

Is this peachy? Just as we are Centralizing our Health Care System, with Democrats praising the countries, particularly the U.K., who have such systems, the U.K. is looking for ways to decentralize to better care for the patient.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html?_r=2&hp

[Guest]

And that's the mistake they make. They (meaning the Democrats) SHOULD have been looking at systems that are more successful and rank better than the single-payer systems in Canada and the UK. From what I can tell, "hybrid" systems seem to work the best where you have private insurance AND a public option like France or Germany.

[Guest]

An investigation by the UK's Sunday Telegraph lays out some of the cuts. Remember, Obama took the opportunity make a recess appointment and make Dr. Donald Berwick head of the nation's Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Berwick loves Comparative Effectiveness Research, which basically is health care rationing. In A Transatlantic Review of the NHS at 60 , published on July 26, 2008 Berwick says, "Cynics beware, I am romantic about the National Health Service; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country.

"The NHS is one of the astounding human endeavours of modern times. Because you use a nation as the scale and taxation as the funding, the NHS is highly political. It is a stage for the polarising debates of modern social theory: debates between market theorists and social planning; enlightenment science and post-modern sceptics of science; utilitarianism and individualism; the premise that we are all responsible for each other and the premise that we are each responsible for ourselves; those for whom government is a source of hope and those for whom government is hopeless. But, even in these debates, you are unified by your nation’s promise to make health care a human right."




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7908742/Axe-falls-on-NHS-services.html

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/337/jul17_1/a838