The rightwing attacks on Britain's National Health Service which we discussed yesterday have prompted a vociferous response from proud Britons, who have taken to Twitter to express their support of the service. Thousands of British tweeters, presumably full of free time as they sit in NHS offices during interminable waits for basic medical care (Kidding, Britons! Please don't knife me!), have made "#welovethenhs" one of the microblogging platform's biggest topics. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown has joined in, saying "NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there." (Brown and his wife suffered the loss of their first child after she was born prematurely in 2002; Sarah Brown also twittered in support, "We love the NHS more than we can say.")
Meanwhile, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan was slapped down by party leader David Cameron for negative comments about the service. Cameron, whose 6-year-old son Ivan died in February after a life made more manageable through NHS care, has long been a vociferous supporter. Finally, scientist Stephen Hawking was at the White House last night, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Earlier in the week Hawking reiterated his gratitude for all the NHS had done to help him. How fortunate for us that he was born in in the UK; God knows what would have happened to him here.
Good thing the group of Americans holding these misconceptions are heavy twitter users.
I often wonder whether Sarah Palin has any followers who are not journalists or bloggers.
A Briefer History of Time?
Obama death panels would have decided his fate, clearly.
"You reserve the right to remain stupid. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you in the court of public opinion."
My mother-in-law died after a four-year struggle with cancer, treated under the NHS. She was a seasonally employed laborer, so would have been likely uninsured in the U.S. and wouldn't have been able to afford much more than catastrophic individual insurance; she was too young for Medicare.
She defied some long odds at the start, thanks to the aggressive optimism of her NHS doctors. And I was incredibly touched and impressed by the care she received at the end of her life from NHS doctors and nurses, and by the accommodations made for her loved ones. Of course, as an American, I was also bewildered that there were no forms to fill out, no 800 numbers to call, no insurance reps to argue with, no claims to process, no credit cards to max out, no fine print to stare at through tears after a sleepless night. She was sick and she died, like we all will, and her sickness and death were not an overtly commodified transaction. It still startles me that I ever could have been startled by that.
socialist.
Running Dog Imperialist Lacky
uh... socialist.