British Fear American-style Healthcare

Here’s a great L.A. Times article on the derision of “American-style” healthcare in the current British debate over reforming and streamlining the National Health Service. The English were none too pleased when Sarah Palin and Republicans in general slammed their cherished NHS during the American healthcare reform debate, decrying its “death panels” and alleged cruelty. Of course, everyone in the country being guaranteed healthcare regardless of ability to pay certainly could be framed as “Orwellian,” but most of us would say it’s just the right thing to do. After all, the savagery of socialized medicine is apparently good enough for veterans, who receive British-style healthcare through the V.A. David Cameron (and just about every other center-right politician in Europe) has to defend the principle of free, universal healthcare, a reminder that conservatism in and of itself would not seem to be against the provision of healthcare for those who need it, just the strain of it that has dominated American politics since the tax revolts of the 1970s.