Cleggmania

Two clouds hang in the stratosphere across Britain this week.
We wait for the ash from the Icelandic volcano to clear, and for Nick Clegg’s X-factor stardom to wane.
The Liberals want us to scrutinise their policies. Well how about their amnesty for 600,000 illegal immigrants for starters -- our schools can’t cope. Add in unlimited immigration, “providing they only live up north”.
Locally they petition to keep hospitals open, but nationally there's no commitment to increase funding for the NHS.
And do they not realise cancelling Britain’s nuclear deterrent forfeits our place on the UN Security Council?
Opinion polls are saying one thing, but on the doorstep I’m finding little extra enthusiasm for the Liberals, and no stomach for another LibLab pact, the most likely outcome unless the Conservatives gain two dozen LibDem parliamentary seats.

Obamacare: Pyrrhic Victory

So American Democrats have invested all their political capital in forcing through a healthcare plan against the wishes of most hard working Americans.
The hugely bureaucratic new system will cost an arm and a leg, with little benefit for the so-called uninsured. In fact it will cost them too in the form of compulsory levies.
Just like in Europe before the advent of socialised healthcare, and as in America today, no one was ever turned away from hospital for want of emergency treatment and without the means to pay.
By all means address the two key issues of insurers blacklisting clients with “pre-existing conditions”, and capping claims resulting in two million medical bankruptcies per year.
But don’t bankrupt the entire US healthcare system in the process.
And don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for the guy!

BUPA Healthcare

BUPA is a major employer in Staines, Egham and Ashford, and their need to cut back on staff is a double-whammy.
The staff deserves sympathy, over 100 of whom face redundancy.
But more worrying is the decline in healthcare expenditure in the UK.
The Conservatives’ commitment to ring-fence state spending via the NHS is good, but that is not enough.
We spend far too little overall on healthcare in Britain, barely half what they spend in America for example.
I’ve been doing my bit recently. I thought I’d save £100 with a special offer on a BUPA healthscreen. After all the further screening tests the doctor recommended -- based on lifestyle and family medical history -- I’ve spent £3,300.

Healthcare Choice

Last week I had a routine screening test at a top London Hospital -- something which a third of American adults have done, but you’d be lucky to get under Britain’s free NHS.
Everything was wonderful after the initial indignity of being frog-marched to the cashier to present my credit card. (They have a lot of Middle Eastern clients whose approach to settling bills is more relaxed).
At £1,200 for a four-hour stay, it made my prawn sandwich lunch the most expensive in London.
At least the Labour Government still allows people the choice to spend their money on healthcare, instead of say exotic foreign holidays. Though I remember Labour even banned those in 1966 when you couldn’t take more than £50 abroad each year -- documented in your passport.

Labour’s Death Tax

At last we have some clear blue water: on the care of our elders.
As Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789: “. . . in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes”. No wonder Labour’s death tax is such a double-whammy.
A compulsory levy robs those who've set aside something for their old age, transferring it largely to those who’ve made no provision. It discourages self-reliance.
The debate is also a proxy for the argument on both sides of the Atlantic about how to fund healthcare in general (bearing in mind that on average half our lifetime healthcare costs occur in the last two years of life).
People no longer want to pay more in taxes, i.e. “big government”. A more voluntary insurance based solution is not easy because the premiums are paid well ahead of the risk, but the concept is not so different from pensions.
New Labour ducked the issue for twelve years. The Conservative solution should not be scoffed at, even by the London Daily Telegraph.

Brown Could Win

There's one election I don’t mind Brown winning, and that’s the one taking place today in Massachusetts.
If Republican Scott Brown beats Martha Coakley in the race to replace Ted Kennedy as senator, then the Democrats lose their ability to steamroller their controversial healthcare plans.
Remember the US Government spends the same proportion of national income on their equivalent of the British NHS. And in addition most people have health insurance, which gives them a vastly superior level of healthcare.
Nationalising the American healthcare market can do nothing but jeopardise that advantage.

Healthcare

A big concern I have is that in the UK we spend only half as much as we ought to on healthcare. The problem is that people don’t see a direct benefit to them in paying more income tax to finance it.
One solution is to encourage more health screening, but not by law like MOTs for cars. In fact we often spend a lot more maintaining our cars than ourselves, and when they pack up you can buy a new one.
So getting a two-yearly health assessment like I did yesterday seems like a no-brainer. I seem to be in pretty good shape, but they don’t let you off the hook that easily.
One of a couple additional tests suggested was an electron beam tomography (EBT). It detects any furring of the coronary arteries, which can to heart attacks -- the cause of death for a third of all British men. So the £500 cost, say every five years, seems reasonable.