If the UK is right-wing, why does it have such a comprehensive health care system?
The UK government owns every bit of the health care system, nothing is private. It owns the hospitals, it owns the ambulance services, all the nurses, doctors, paramedics, ward staff are all government employees. There is pretty much no privatization anywhere in the NHS system. This is in contrast to Japan, Switzerland and Canada where most of their hospitals and doctors are private, and the government just subsidize the cost, rather than actually owning the system itself. The UK government covers 82% of health care costs, whereas in Canada only 69% of the costs are covered, and in Australia 67% of the costs are covered. The UK system seems to be the ultimate socalist system. Nothing right-wing about it.
Politics - 8 Answers
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1 :
The UK hasn't been right-wing since WW2. The UK is a center-left social democracy.
2 :
There is some privatization in the NHS. Anyway, what is left or right wing in one country is not necessarily left or right wing in another.
3 :
I do not really know any specifics about the UK and how the country is run, however...... It is very possible to have a socialist economic system, and be very socially conservative.
4 :
Stark contrast to Canada? I think you are lost or something.
5 :
that was before the new government (I'm worried about having to pay 31% in Canada, I haven't paid anything in the last 40 years, will they show up with a huge bill one day?)
6 :
The U.K is becoming islamic theocracy that will arrest people for burning korans while violent muslim gangs dominate their streets. Not to mention they are busy building the biggest mosque is the world in London etc..
7 :
That's the idea (and problem) of the NHS. The public own everything. Unfortunately this is often just an excuse to employ millions of paper pushers who really don't fill any function other than to be expensive office-fillers, creating bureaucracy for each other. The idea of it was to create a state-owned healthcare provider whose services would be free at the point of need, so you don't get a scene like you get in American hospitals when people with their guts spilling out all over the place are searching for their credit cards or are on the phone to their bank manager frantically re-mortgaging their house. That's not to say that there isn't private healthcare in the UK. Ironically one of the largest private healthcare organisations in the world, BUPA, is very prevalent in the healthcare industry. And you can't take the NHS as being the bellwether for the British nation in general. Within the market capitalist economy and the shrinking state, the NHS is something of an anachronism nowadays.
8 :
UK is not center right, it is closer to Socialism than even center. @Grandad: You did it again, you make false assertions about America, perhaps you watch too many celebrity journalists instead of doing your own research. No American can be turned away from an emergency room, whether they can pay or not, Also, many use the emergency room as their family doctor, they go when they have the sniffles, they cannot be turned away. You are prone to the dramatic (spilled guts) Let me tell you some English people who can pay the fare here choose to come for the best attention. I am beginning to see a pattern in your vitriol, envy. One of these days you will get your information right.
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