I’ve long thought that, were I a US citizen, I’d be a card-carrying Democrat. But the recent actions of the Republican party have left me dumbstruck at their audacity, to say nothing of their outright dishonesty, in attacking Barack Obama’s plans for universal healthcare.
I’ve never been a tub-thumping patriot but I confess to feeling more than a little aggrieved at the vitriol recently directed from across the Atlantic at the NHS.
Despite having made only very limited use of it in my life I’m in no doubt that it’s an absolutely crucial part of the fabric of our society – something, without which, countless people would suffer from sub-standard healthcare and restricted access to important medication, treatment and advice.
Anyone reading this from the United States finding that this sounds at all familiar? Yes, that’s right, this description could easily refer to the current state of healthcare in the US.
Aside from gross misapprehensions and downright lies, the Republican party is unashamedly playing on the lowest common denominator in American politics: fear. By engaging in the cheapest, most base level of coercion the Republicans are creating a climate of fear to scare Americans into rejecting what would be a revolutionary change – for the better – in one of the most inequitable healthcare markets in the developed world.
It seems to come down to something fundamental in the make-up of your average right-wing voter. Universal healthcare comes in, some insurance plans are no longer viable and I might have to pay a bit more for their excellent level of care. Poorer families will benefit, but who cares, because now I’m $50 a month lighter.
I’m sorry, but if a family earns in excess of $350,000 a year it can afford to subsidise the poorer sections of society. They clean their houses, they cook their meals, they empty their trash cans, often for woefully inadequate wages. They owe them.
Forgive me for trotting out some dyed-in-the-wool lefty rhetoric but the provision of health is something far too important to be controlled by the free market. I simply do not believe that the trusting something so volatile to allocate resources most efficiently in the financial sector, let alone something as fundamental as healthcare. If you let the market decide, a large proportion of people get royally screwed. This, if nothing else, is what the recession has taught me.
What currently passes for a Labour government in this country seems hell-bent on shifting the NHS closer and closer to a market-driven model, via none-too-subtle changes in structure, reflected in nauseating linguistic changes. ‘Service users’, not ‘patients’ is just the tip of the iceberg.
How things change. Our government is continuing the shift away from the founding principles of the NHS (a move which began about 5 minutes after the thing was actually created) and at the same time the US – up until a few months ago the bastion of liberalised, free market principles – is looking to socialise healthcare to ensure that no American is left behind.
People are naturally conservative. Change is scary. And some there are some who are genuinely so elitist that they genuinely don’t care if poor people have access to healthcare.
But taken logically, the change Barack Obama proposes is for the better. What doesn’t help is scaremongering, fear-stoking and outright lies about the NHS and universal healthcare - music to the ears of the faction of reactionary lunatics who, somehow, seem to have more of a voice than 100 of their moderate, reasonable peers.
Tightening banking regulations to stop huge bonuses and potentially catastrophic, short-termist investment decisions relies on the same logic as ensuring a basic level of care for people across all their healthcare needs. If we ignore lessons like this then we risk falling back into the same pattern of boom and bust, the kind of unsustainable growth which will eventually leave us out of pocket. We are all responsible.
The Republican Party should be ashamed of itself. Dr Stephen Hawking should appear on television, broadcast coast to coast, and denounce the claims that a ‘American NHS’ would have left him for dead years ago. Obama should do more to counter the ludicious claims being made on TV and at rallies across the country. The American people should trust in the man than they, ultimately, elected to provide adequate health care for every single citizen, not least the 47 million uninsured and 25 million under-insured.
Will all of these things happen? Only time, and the determination of the most exciting US President in living memory, will tell.
Liza Finn has a new band and last night an appreciative crowd at Camden's famous Purple Turtle saw the debut live performance of the five-piece. Having performed around London over the last few years, the band is beginning to move up a level of venues as it becomes more and more established on the circuit.
Having handed keyboard duty to her new band member, the singer-songwriter looked happy to be free from the constraints of sitting down on stage. The person who enjoyed this most was her boyfriend Mike: "I've never seen her legs before", he exclaimed (possibly only half-joking).
Tight and precise throughout, the band's jazz-pop sound is aided by a refreshing combination of bongo drumming and trumpeteering. Later on, Liza informed me that this was the first gig she had ever earned any money from and, on this showing, it will be the first of many at venues across the capital.
