You have to hand it to conservatives. When they want to stomp on regular folks -- they know how to act in unison.
On the exact same day that Republicans in the US House voted to repeal the most far-reaching healthcare reforms in the USA in several decades -- their British counterparts in the Conservative Party (aided by their Quisling enablers and collaborators in the Liberal [sic] Democrats [sic] Party) announced plans to decimate and destroy Britain's priceless National Health system. The same wonderful system that Michael Moore illustrated so well in his film Sicko.
The reason? Purely ideological of course. (Masquerading as concern for the economy.) So that private for-profit "healthcare" [sic] companies -- who fund the British Conservative Party -- can muscle in on the profits to be had from exploiting the sick. Duh!
(Incidentally... why can't conservatives just come out and proudly proclaim their seething hatred of societal infrastructure that helps ordinary people instead of always hiding behind the transparent fig leaf of faux concern about money. The self-same money that they insist on lavishing on defense contractors and as tax kickbacks for their corporate and mega-wealthy political supporters. Let's call it wealthcare...)
Is the UK National Health absolutely perfect? Of course not. No such animal. But imperfect as it is, it is still a superb service.
The UK government's cynical plans for destruction are already being condemned by medical authorities (including the UK equivalent of the AMA which has called the scheme "a big gamble"), hospitals, clinics, surgeons, specialists, family doctors, nurses and heathcare unions. In fact by everyone except the profiteers in private companies who are creaming themselves at the prospect of being able to extract vast profits from human misfortune and misery.
What conservatives in the UK want to do is "add two hyphens" to the existing philosophy and have Britain's healthcare system emulate the US -- where one in six people have no health insurance at all.
What do I mean by "add two hyphens"?
Simple. The marvel of the enlightened British system -- first introduced by a Labour government in 1948 -- is that it provides healthcare to everyone. Regardless of how much or how little money the person has. In a very real sense it is: free for all.
What the UK Conservatives are proposing will result in a free--for--all.
The subtle but deadly insertion of those hyphens make all the difference. The free-for-all that is the disastrous American healthcare system is the goal of the UK Conservatives. Why not? It spells fat profits for their cronies in private healthcare [sic], insurance and drug companies.
And by the way -- please don't fall for the right-wing trick of referring to the UK system as "socialized medicine" with all the pejorative connotations that the word "socialized" has been tarred with over the years.
As Michael Moore has pointed out, the philosophy behind such a wonderfully compassionate health system (of the type enjoyed by much of the industrialized world and by members of the US Congress) is clearly that of Jesus Christ. So what the cruel conservatives are condemning is really Christianized medicine.
And -- while I'm on the page -- where do the Republicans get off calling their dastardly demolition job the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act"?
The Reagan-era tax cuts led to an economic blight so severe and devastating for working Americans that the suicide rates increased markedly in that dire eight-year span -- especially among farmers. I don't recall there being a "Repealing the Suicide-Causing Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 Bill". Perhaps there should have been. And for that measure we should have had the "Repealing the Troop-Slaughtering Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 Act".