smallfuzzy

Right. As my other, off-the-cuff post created a good deal more discussion than I expected, I'm going to sit down and talk properly about the NHS and try to put some information out to counter the misinformation that seems to be bouncing around the other side of the water.

My Stake In This

Here is the honest truth. Unless you guys are dragging us into wars the Brits don't actually care all that much about what is going on US side. Seriously, we kinda expect you to be crazy, and the most you're going to get out of us most days is an eyeroll and "oh, those crazy Americans."

Until your stuff starts insulting our stuff. Then it's personal.

It's your country. I'm sure you'll vote for whatever you want for it. But I feel the same way about "the Brits put their old and really sick people before a death panel who decide if they would live or die! Stephen Hawking would never have been allowed to live there!"* as if one of our mainstream political parties started running ads that shouted "DON'T VOTE FOR THOSE GUYS, IN AMERICA THEY ENSURE THAT THE POOR PEOPLE ARE COOKED INTO PIES!" Imagine if they did that, and we seriously believed it, and how we'd start thinking of you awful people-pie eating Americans. Not nice, is it?

There's good stuff in the NHS, and there's bad stuff. I'd rather that at least the bad stuff you knew about was the bad stuff that was actually true, rather than that you guys were wandering around going "Oh, Laura's grandmother's really old. Poor Laura. I bet they shoot her next time she's sick."

The plural of anecdote as we all know, is not data. But I can at least chat about some of my experiences with the NHS. I'm sure other Brits can chip in with theirs (Hell, US guys, chip in, tell us how this stuff works your side of the water). And possibly we can build a picture of what is expected and normal over here as opposed to over there, and get something a bit more accurate and realistic into people's heads. Edjumucation is good!

* He's British. And not dead. Seriously, guys, what the hell?

( This is gonna be long. )

My arm hurts now, so I'm stopping. But I will finish with these figures from the Beeb on life expectancy, expenditure and infant mortality. They make interesting reading.

Questions? Anecdata? Arguments?