British Parliamentarian Warns US About Socialized Health Care
By now you may have seen the video of British MEP Daniel Hannan ripping Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his inept leadership of Great Britain.
Hannan was on Sean Hannity’s show a few days ago and while he talked about this incident, he talked about something that may ultimately be more relevant and important for America: government health care.
HANNAN: The worse thing is for you as the recipient of health care because you’ve got no control over what you get. There’s no contractual relationship between you and the suppliers, so, you know, if they treat you today or next week or six weeks from now, where it’s too late because your condition has already deteriorated… there’s nothing you can do about it. You are expected to queue up with a smile and be grateful for what you have.
I lived in England for three years and I had such a hearty nostalgic laugh when he said this. I had some British friends who were under no illusions about how terrible the National Health Service was, and so many times I heard them say things such as this.
Having utilized the NHS myself a few times during those three years, I often joined them in those comments!
But let me give you the larger picture from the transcript of this interview (video below). You socialists here in the United States: pay heed to this man. This is a British leader who is trying to tell you what a profoundly terrible idea socialized medicine is–in the United States or any country.
HANNITY: Yes. Anybody but a politician can see that. I think that’s going to go down as one of the all-time classics. Unfortunately, it’s true. You know, one of the things, Mr. Hannan, that we’re debating in America, Barack Obama wants to lay down $634 billions for nationalized health care.
Well, we’ve had nationalized health care in Great Britain, and we’ve had it in France, and we’ve had a single payer in Canada. My question to you is, based on what you said, I would like you to explain to the American people if this is a good idea through this prism.
I read in The Daily Mail last week that the — the your health system, the NHS, literally has a group of people that decided, government bureaucrats, that they were going to give drugs to women with breast cancer and a certain rare form of stomach cancer. The rationing body is what they call it.
Is it a good idea for the U.S. to invest in nationalized health care?
HANNAN: Now, first of all, it’s important that you understand that that’s a true story, and it’s a typical story. It’s not in the newspapers because it’s unusual. We have a rationing body that’s called, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. It’s known as NICE, N-I-C-E, which, coincidentally, there was an adult novel by C.S. Lewis in the 1940s where the NICE was this kind of Satanic conspiracy.
And in terms of them, align affects, you can sort of see the connection. I mean it’s a terrible thing to put anyone in this situation, any bureaucrat in this situation, of having to make those life and death decisions because they are literally life and death decisions.
HANNITY: So you…
HANNAN: The worse thing is for you as the recipient of health care because you’ve got no control over what you get. There’s no contractual relationship between you and the suppliers, so, you know, if they treat you today or next week or six weeks from now, where it’s too late because your condition has already deteriorated.
HANNITY: So your advice.
HANNAN: … there’s nothing you can do about it. You are expected to queue up with a smile and be grateful for what you have. And it is — it’s the last survivor of the kind of socialist post-war conspiracy. Sorry, socialist post war –- yes, I’m tired. It’s midnight. Socialist post-war consensus…
HANNITY: All right, let me ask you.
HANNAN: … in the U.K.
HANNITY: So your advice to America is to stay away from socialized health care. I think you’re very clear on that. Let me ask you what.
HANNAN: If you — listen, if you get nothing else from what I’m saying this evening, please do not make that mistake. If there are any congressman watching this who think, yes, it might be a bit fair, yes, it’d be a bit sort of cozy, you know, I promise you, it is worse for doctors. It’s worse for patients. It’s worse for taxpayers.
Finally, Hannan blessed my heart when he acknowledged what many Americans are too daft or misled to understand:
HANNAN: What made your country great, what made your people strong and prosperous and free.
HANNITY: Capitalism.
HANNAN: … that it was small government right from the beginning, right from the declaration of independence. There was a distrust of the concentration of power and a confidence in the freedom of the individual. And you know, people will always make better decisions for themselves than administrators will make for them.
And if — when you lose that, if you Europeanize yourselves, and under the illusion that it’s kind of, you know, a bit Hitler and a bit miser and you know, you make yourselves more popular in the world, you will throw away what may people actually respect you
God bless you, sir, and may God use you to do something remarkable in the great nation of Great Britain!
(Hannan begins to discuss socialized medicine at about 3 minutes into the video)
Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.
