The NHS: Not Great for Health

Britain’s National Health Service Isn’t A World Beater, Forbes, October 30, 2016, "Last week, UK2020, a think tank founded by Conservative MP Owen Paterson, published a major study of “The UK Health System – An International Comparison of Health Outcomes,” by Dr. Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs. It provides extensive and sober evidence for the contention that, regardless of what Britons (and others) think of it, the National Health Service (NHS) is not particularly good at reducing preventable deaths . Dr. Niemietz finds that over 46,000 people die annually in Britain who would have been kept alive if they had been treated by the best health system in the world. Even if they had been treated by the 12th best system in the world, 17,000 more people a year would live. The study quotes the Guardian’s assessment that “the only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive.” Quite."

The Latest NHS Leak

A False Idol, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 7, 2009. "The National Health Service is like a deity in Britain. Or so we are told. Irish actor and director, Graham Linehan – a very funny man – has taken to defending the NHS by saying that American criticisms of it are “like if you criticize your parents. You can do it - but if anyone else criticized them you’d murder them.” That’s not going to keep life expectancies up. The Economist, for its part, offers up the plea “God save the NHS.” So much for the Queen, apparently. There is something distinctly off-putting in this worshipful attitude. The NHS is not the English Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment. It is not a statement of eternal truths. It is a bureaucratic organization intended to serve a particular purpose. If it does not serve that purpose well, then it should be changed. The outraged responses to American – and British – criticisms of the NHS have a calculated political purpose: to reject the very thought that the government should not be responsible for running the entire health care system.

The Health of the System

Britain's Sacred Cow: The NHS and Daniel Hannan, New Ledger, August 21, 2009. "Daniel Hannan is in trouble. The young Tory European MP, who became a YouTube sensation earlier this year for his denunciation of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the “devalued prime minister of a devalued government,” has made what can in politics be a serious error: he has challenged orthodoxy in a way that is both substantive and interesting. Boring substantive challenges can be seen off, and soaring rhetoric that says nothing is the stuff of politics, but having a point and knowing how to make it will always raise bellows from the defenders of the gored sacred cow."

The (Really) Painful Side of the NHS

In Britain's NHS, A Death A Day Because the Doctor's Away, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 20, 2009.

Why Is This Liberal?

Do You Smoke?: Twelve Easy Steps to Figuring Out, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 19, 2009.

A Lesson from Britain on Computerized Health Care

The Crushing Costs of Addressing the Crushing Cost of Health Care, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 2, 2009.