Letter to the Editor
The Guardian
Wednesday, 14 July, 2010
I read with anguish your report of Andrew Lansley’s plans to transform the NHS into a more US-style programme. We in the US have “choice” and “competition” up to our eyebrows in a privatised system run ā even after the recent healthcare “reform” ā in the interest of the for-profit health insurance industry. Our system, leaving 50 million Americans out entirely and bankrupting 1.2 million every year because of medical bills, costs twice what yours does.
Make no mistake: these moves are a dramatic step in the direction of further privatising the NHS, to the detriment of patients, GPs and all who care about healthcare as a public good rather than a profit-making enterprise. I urge you to resist all attempts to take the NHS down this dangerous path.
Martha Livingston
Co-author, 10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care