Richard Blogger, who has quite a reputation in exposing what has been going on in NHS privatisation, left a comment on this blog yesterday that I thought worth sharing as a blog in its own right. He said:
Cameron says that to save a measly £20m he will introduce NHS charges for immigrants. This means two things. Firstly, everyone will have to give proof of their entitlement to NHS care before they get that care: a national ID system. Everyone has an NHS number, but few people know what theirs is, nor are they ever asked for it. That will change. Secondly, Cameron says that immigrants will have to have insurance to cover emergency treatment (even in the US you do not have to have insurance for emergency treatment). In the UK we only have gold card medical insurance — insurance for elective treatment in private hospitals where the accommodation is 5 star hotel equivalent. We we do not have insurance that will cover people with chronic conditions, or treatment for emergency care.
So Cameron's announcement that immigrants will have to pay for NHS treatment is significant because it will mean that the insurance companies will develop products for people with chronic conditions and for emergency care. In other words EXACTLY the sort of products that will be needed when a future Conservative (or LIB Dem) government moves us to an insurance funded system.
And yet there is more. Cameron has decreed that in 2014 people with long term conditions will have personal healthcare budgets. That's right, people will be told how much money they are allowed to spend on treating their condition, and patients — not GPs — will have to procure that treatment. Two thirds of the NHS budget is spent on people with long term conditions, so this policy change is huge — anyone hear about it? Personal budgets have already been introduced in social care (the last government brought them in) and the result is that people with personal budgets are underfunded and subject to the local authority cuts. The result is that either people go without the care they need, or they have to pay top ups even to get basic care. Top-ups. The same will happen in the NHS with personal healthcare budgets. They will lead to people paying top-ups to get basic NHS care, and people with long term conditions, worried about this, will look to the insurance companies for some solution.
In 2005, in an article for the Independent that has now disappeared off the internet, Nick Clegg said that he wanted the NHS to be “broken up” and for the introduction of insurance. He's only a few years off getting his dream.
We need to be very, very worried. The abuse of the NHS, and with it one of the fundamental underpinnings of modern life in Britain, goes on.
And amongst others the BBC says nothing about it.
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The reason the BBC say little or nothing on such issues, and put a positive spin on almost any story to do with NHS privatisation is because its leadership and management are: a. scared stiff of offending this government; and b. no longer committed to the the fact that they are a public broadcaster. Their ideal is to emulate Sky.
part if this, I imagine, is Cameron trying to do the ‘UKIP shuffle’. Bashing immigrants and benefit claimants is a vote winner, it appears. Thirty years of following America – we are the most economically divided country in Europe and now this! The public will take it because they have been primed to believe it is their fault if they haven’t got enough money – they haven’t worked hard enough following the dream!! I’m afraid 30 years of neo-lib stuff has really changed the culture mor deeply than I suspected.
“Two thirds of the NHS budget is spent on people with long term conditions, so this policy change is huge — anyone hear about it? Personal budgets have already been introduced in social care (the last government brought them in) and the result is that people with personal budgets are underfunded and subject to the local authority cuts.”
And as you say Richard, not a word in our wonderful ‘free press’, nor on the Beeb.
Thanks to Richard Blogger for this extraordinary statement
“In 2005, in an article for the Independent that has now disappeared off the internet, Nick Clegg said that he wanted the NHS to be “broken up” and for the introduction of insurance. He’s only a few years off getting his dream.”
Two things:
1) How on EARTH didn’t Labour pick up on this, and take Clegg to the cleaners? I suspect because “Tory Bliar” and his appalling sidekick, Milburn, had just the same plans in prospect, and didn’t want to alienate the Lib-Dems, in case they needed to go into coalition with them (never guessing they’s pimp themselves off to the “Miss Havisham” Tory beldames).
2) How on EARTH can Clegg claim any consanguinity with the Liberal Party of Lloyd George’s “People’s Budget” and the start of Old Age Pensions. This is pure Orange Book, and before that it’s 19th century Manchester Liberalism, which believed Free Trade would solve every know problem in the universe – probably including smallpox and syphilis! Given the evidence from such insurance based systems, especially from the USA, there’s little chance that such an insurance-based system would improve matters.
Final point: Thatcher was a 19th century Manchester Liberal, of course, but took its worst aspects (at least they had a solid record of REAL achievement in REAL local government e.g. Manchester and Birmingham), but Clegg’s ascendacy and that of his coterie, means that BOTH Coalition Parties have been captured by entryists from the extreme Right.
Stop worrying about Militant and SWP – Labour saw them off – the real threat is from the Right, who have captured 2 Parties, probably, it would seem, the BBC, certainly HMRC, and will eventually capture the whole Civil Service. The re-feudalization project is progressing very well, alas!
Add in UKIP – if only they knew what they are about
And Labour in the Black
Agreed on both counts.
The enemies of the good are everywhere – a political equivalent of “The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers”!
And the BBBC (sic) just keeps schtum!
Good point Andrew – remember Rhodes-Boyson who was also a be-sideburned reincarnation of a Lancashire Mill owner? We’ve got the worst aspects of utilitarianism without elements of Victorian munificence, condescending as it was. The Liberals brought in social housing and now they are ideologically attacking it – its beyond belief.
We already do charge those who are not entitled to free-at-the-point-of-use NHS treatment. This week’s episode of ‘Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS In A Day’ features Carlton Stephens, the Overseas Manager at King’s College Hospital, who discusses his job and interviews patients suspected of not being entitled to free care, to determine what rights they do have.
Available until 21 May, to UK viewers, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01s9ln3/?t=31m25s (that link points to the start of his segment)
If immigrants have ever paid into the UK income tax or national insurance schemes, they should have the same rights to free care that all UK-born individuals do, including their dependents’ access to care. This is a public health issue: a lot of our resistance to disease comes from herd immunity and it’s weakened if there are significant numbers of the population that are not immune, their immune system is weakened due to other conditions, or they are not treated quickly.
Despicable as it is, one has to marvel at the clever politics behind it. Racist abuse of immigrants has primed the public to accept pretty horrible anti-immigration policies that can then pave the way for abuse of the public as a whole. Labour are terrified of appearing “soft” on immigration so cannot oppose this too much and hence the path to ending Universal healthcare is open.
This should be a lesson in why anti-immigration politics is bad for everyone but still people allow the divide and conquer approach to work. I place a lot of blame on Labour here. They pursued a very cruel immigration policy themselves yet have allowed it to be presented as “soft” allowing even more extreme policies to seem reasonable. This is the classic right wing approach imported from America, get the nominal left to adopt a right wing policy, denounce it as “far left” allowing the political centre of gravity to go even further right and repeat until you have hit the absolute extreme.
In this case racism has been legitimised an acceptable political position and as we see here it is not just minorities that suffer as a result. It was pointed out in a column in The Herald yesterday that Enoch Powell’s speech that got him dismissed from the shadow cabinet was actually fairly soft compared to what we hear today. That shows how extreme politics has become in this regard.
The sad thing is that there is scope for left wing politicians to stand against this. I remember in an election debate a few years ago Alex Salmond said he was sick of people talking about immigration as a bad thing and that we should see it is positive. The audience erupted in cheers and moreover the stance has hardly hurt him since. Ed Milliband would do well to bare that in mind.
Agreed
I suggest that the door to full blown privatisation of NHS is now definitely ajar! Might an attempt be made to some how blame this on the EU if charging immigrants? OK, I know that I should stop looking for the Trojan Horse!
I’ve been wondering about this as I’ve had to visit hospital quite a bit lately with my husband (fortunately nothing seems seriously wrong). Every time we visit he is asked to confirm a) that he’s British and b) that he’s lived in this country for the last 12 months. This seems to be new – and we are relieved that we returned to the UK, from a short spell working abroad, two and a half years ago… What would have happened if his cancer scare had come sooner?
Just trying to find any traces of the 2005 Clegg interview from the Indy. Digital Spy have what they claim are his quotes:
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?p=39749894
“One very, very important point – I think breaking up the NHS is exactly what you do need to do to make it a more responsive service.” Then he goes further, even refusing to rule out the insurance-based models used in mainland Europe and Canada.
“I don’t think anything should be ruled out. I think it would be really, really daft to rule out any other model from Europe or elsewhere. I do think they deserve to be looked out because frankly the faults of the British health service compared to others still leave much to be desired.”