UK General ELection 7 May 2015

[peejaye]

Well said Martin48. You sound like a very intelligent guy. Jeremy Hunt & his millionaire colleagues are "drooling" at the mouth at the thoughts of a privatised NHS system.

To our US friends(?); I pay £850+ in tax and insurances every month, not my choice! Why the f++k should I have to pay when I want to see a Doctor?
What are these "morons" doing with our money......dishing it out to their friends/investors in the privatised sector.

I hope, one day, they meet their maker!

[broncofan]

To our US friends(?); I pay £850+ in tax and insurances every month, not my choice! Why the f++k should I have to pay when I want to see a Doctor?

I don't think anyone was claiming your healthcare system is not effective, only whether the conservative party wants to completely abolish NHS. I wanted to understand what your health care outcomes were given your streamlined expenditures. I don't doubt that they are very good or that the U.S does not receive any appreciable benefit (if any?) from spending 80% more per dollar of gdp. It's just that cost cannot be divorced from quality. It's also important to note that for extremely morbid conditions, people will spend much more for even the most marginal improvement in survival rate or quality of life…so there will be non-linearity in the cost-quality relationship that could just represent different priorities.

I'm from the U.S. as you speculate. Am just curious about your elections. I am not putting forward our own system as a model to emulate…in fact I think our system is rife with all of the wrong incentives for doctors and patients which is why our expenditures are enormous.

[peejaye]

No offence meant Bronco. As you may of detected; our health service is very precious to us over here, Conservative politicians exempted! There isn't much in life gets you "down" than being ill then having to wait two weeks to see a Doctor!

[martin48]

Rating the "quality" of health services is difficult but the most respected study is by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_ce...ess_release/en

I quote

"The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of GDP on health services, ranks 18 th ."

Another report has been produced by the Commonwealth Fund, a Washington-based foundation which is respected around the world for its analysis of the performance of different countries' health systems. It examined an array of evidence about performance in 11 countries, including detailed data from patients, doctors and the World Health Organisation. It ranked UK top and the US last. (2014)

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/17/nhs-health

I rest my case

[broncofan]

I wasn't asking because I expected different results but because health care expenditures by themselves aren't all that revealing. I expected the UK to have very good healthcare, otherwise NHS would be an arbitrary and excessive source of national pride. And I would not expect that.

From the Commonwealth Fund Study, it said, "The only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive. On a composite "healthy lives" score, which includes deaths among infants and patients who would have survived had they received timely and effective healthcare, the UK came 10th (out of 11)." I would have considered this last part a fairly big priority so as you say it is probably difficult to agree on criteria to rate quality. But given a choice between the U.S. and U.K. health care systems, I would choose the U.K. system in a heartbeat…for a variety of reasons, which include the fact that your system seems to manage chronic conditions much better and provides more uniform care, which should be a big priority, in addition to the enormous cost savings and administrative efficiency. Anyhow, if you are considering spending more of your gdp on healthcare, the "healthy lives" category might receive a bit of investment.

[Jericho]

Well, I guess by this time tomorrow, we'll all know what's in store for us (Brits) in the future...Cake or Sodomy!

[martin48]

I suspect - same old shit

Well, I guess by this time tomorrow, we'll all know what's in store for us (Brits) in the future...Cake or Sodomy!

[flabbybody]

you might not know who's PM for days if no party gets majority

[martin48]

There'll always be a PM in post except for the brief time between Cameron offering his resignation to the Queen and she appointing Miliband

[Stavros]

I have compiled this list of MPs and their educational background -university and subject- to illustrate how narrow the field of top flight politicians has become. Some of the MPs on the list may not make it through the night...

Conservative
David Cameron (Prime Minister) Oxford, PPE
George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) Oxford, History
Theresa May (Home Secretary) Oxford, Geography
Phillip Hammond (Foreign Secretary) Oxford, PPE
Chris Grayling (Justice) Cambridge, History
Michael Fallon (Defence) St Andrews, Classics and Ancient History
Ian Duncan Smith (Works and Pensions) Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Jeremy Hunt (Health) Oxford, PPE
Eric Pickles (Communities and Local Govt) Leeds Polytechnic
Nicky Morgan (Education) Oxford, Jurisprudence
Justine Greening (International Development) Southampton, Economics

Liberal Democrats
Nick Clegg (Leader and Deputy PM) Cambridge, Archaeology & Anthropology
Vince Cable (Business) Cambridge, Natural Sciences, then Economics
Danny Alexander (Treasury) Oxford, PPE
Ed Davey (Energy & Climate Change) Oxford, PPE
Simon Hughes (Justice) Cambridge, Law

Labour
Ed Miliband (Leader) Oxford, PPE
Harriet Harman (Deputy Leader) York, Politics
Douglas Alexander (Foreign Secretary) Edinburgh, Politics
Ed Balls (Chancellor) Oxford, PPE
Yvette Cooper [Mrs Balls] (Home Secretary) Oxford, PPE
Rachel Reeves (Work & Pensions) Oxford, PPE
Maria Eagle (Environment) Oxford, PPE
Sadiq Khan (Justice) University of North London, Law
Andy Burnham (Health) Cambridge, English
Chuka Umunna (Business), Manchester, Law
Tristram Hunt (Education) Cambridge, History
Caroline Flint (Energy & Climate Change) University of East Anglia, American Literature & Film Studies
Vernon Coates (Defence) Warwick, Economics & Politics

John Bercow (Mr Speaker) Essex, Politics