Keith complains about the inefficiency of the UK National Health Service and dreams of privatization of the health care sector. As usual, Keith is suggesting to put out fire with gasoline. Health care privatization makes things worse for public health, because the approach is completely wrong -- it maximizes short-term private profits instead of long-term public health ! And that's usually the contrary. (Real prevention is no business (note that what they call prevention isn't prevention but finding tumors), but sloppy doctoring with symptoms IS business.) Even the NYT -- bulwark of neoliberalism -- had to concede this in an article two years ago (posted on FW back then), of which I reprint the beginning below. Chris _____________________Report from the NYTimes 7/14/99_____________________ Report Says Profit-Making Health Plans Damage Care July 14, 1999 By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG WASHINGTON -- Patients enrolled in profit-making health insurance plans are significantly less likely to receive the basics of good medical care -- including childhood immunizations, routine mammograms, pap smears, prenatal care, and lifesaving drugs after a heart attack -- than those in not-for-profit plans, says a new study that concludes that the free market is "compromising the quality of care." The research, conducted by a team from Harvard University and Public Citizen, an advocacy group in Washington, is the first comprehensive comparison of investor-owned and nonprofit plans. The authors found that on every one of 14 quality-of-care indicators, the for-profits scored worse. But because the researchers favor national health insurance, some questioned their findings. "The market is destroying our health care system," Dr. David U. Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine at Harvard University Medical School and the study's lead author, said in a telephone interview. "We have had a decade or more of policies aimed at making health care a business, and they have failed."
