British Health: Are you In or Out?
Suppose you are in Britain and you need a life-saving cancer drug or a medical test the government refuses to provide. Answer for thousands of patients: pay for the item yourself. But the (anything-but-compassionate) Labor government is now saying: not so fast. Play by our rationing rules or pay for the whole shebang. A New York Times story tells of a woman, who was willing to pay $120,000 for the cancer drug, Avastin (which the National Health Service refused to pay for). Initially, she was told she would have to pay for the entire cancer treatment, if she paid privately for the drug. After bad publicity, the government relented.
Not very compassionate indeed, health care funding should have priority over almost every thing else
Thanks from Josh
One subject missing from your excellent coverage is the actual medical care that can be expected by an individual. My husband studied in the UK during his medical student days and it was pretty evident that certain ages and types of diseases were not addressed. You are sent home to die. Americans have a different culture and won’t necessarily consign a grandparent of 62 to only palliative care due to the cost. I think that your organization is well situated to explore the real care that is given rationing and all. Discrimination will be very apparent.