Iain Macwhirter in the Sunday Herald, 13 July 2014:
“The Scottish Parliament is responsible for health in Scotland but funding remains with Westminster through the Barnett Formula, which increases or decreases every year in line with health spending in England. The intention of the UK health reforms is to get private companies to take on more and more of the work of the NHS, reducing the contribution made by the taxpayer.
This will inevitably reduce the funding that comes to Scotland, even assuming the Barnett Formula is retained. George Osborne has pencilled in a further £35 billion in cuts to health spending. As consultant surgeon Philippa Whitford has argued, this means the Scottish Government might be forced to go along the same privatisation route to fill the gap.
But there is a further threat facing the NHS.”
“The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the fruit of long-running negotiations between the EU and the US over trade liberalisation. One of its fundamental principles is that services, including state services, should be open to private competition from American multinationals.
According to Garcia Bercero, the EU Commission official with responsibility for TTIP, health services in Europe will be opened to private competition, but only where privatisation is already established. In other words, where there is an existing state monopoly, foreign companies cannot sue the government in question for unfair competition.
But the UK Health and Social Care Act opened the UK system to TTIP because it explicitly introduces a private market in health provision in England. After a No vote, private providers and insurance companies may argue that, since Scotland is not a sovereign state but a region of the UK, it cannot be exempted from competition for health provision.
We are a long way from that being tested in law, but what is beyond doubt is that the UK has made the NHS in England TTIP compliant. It seems highly likely that the Scottish system will be seen as an unacceptable anachronism in a unitary state.”
Most people have never heard of TTIP and have no idea what it means. Half of Scotland probably thinks it’s a reference to T In The Park. But its implications for the Scottish NHS in the event of a No vote are no picnic.
Tags: qft
Category
scottish politics
Trackback: trackback from your own site.
Yes, the consequences of a No vote become clearer as we count down to the referendum. Have any MSM journalists asked Darling and the No campaign about the NHS? I cannot recall him or other unionists being asked about it.
No thanks.
The message just gets louder and clearer. We must vote YES in September to salvage whatever shreds of decent health and social care are left after this neo-liberal holocaust. How can Labour justify supporting this theft of public assets?
The following link gives one view of how dangerous TTIP will be.
http://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/publications/foee_factsheet_isds_oct13.pdf
I just saw the Rev’s exchange on Twitter with Pennie Taylor, a long-standing experienced journalist (ex-BBC) specialising in health, who doesn’t see the impending threat of privatisation down south on the Scottish block grant.
Truly unbelievable.
@Capella
Because they sold out about 20 years ago, and are now really Tories in all but name. You will not be told this from the MSM though. They have to keep pretending that there is a difference between the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour.
How many No foot soldiers are selling this, door to door?
When you look even for 5 minutes at this idea – and the precursor Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – every ordinary person must surely conclude that these treaties are explicitly designed to convert Merely Rich Yanks into Very Rich Yanks.
This is a genuine risk to our health service. There seem to be only two routes to avoid privatisation: voting Yes in September or hoping the UK will leave the EU, which would protect us from TTIP but leave us exposed to budget cuts and political pressure from Westminster. Yes is looking like the only way to save our NHS from corporate greed and doctrinal dismemberment. This is really frightening.
@Jamie Arriere
Sadly there are people in Scotland who have been bought by the British establishment, and are willing to say and do anything to keep Scotland from running its own affairs. This level of denial you just cannot deal with in a rational way. You cannot appeal and win them over because they refuse point blank to deal with the consequences of a No vote. It is like talking to a brick wall.
Did none of the NO campaigners or Pennie Taylor not listen to the UK’s leading expert of public health finance Prof Allyson Pollock on Radio Scotland a week past Saturday morning when she clearly stated that the NHS no longer exists in England and that Osborne’s proposed cuts will affect the Barnett funding?
This message should be going out loud and clear.
Capella says
Just to reiterate that London labour are already “signed up”
To Tory welfare cuts. Hence Johan’s promise to abolish universal
Free prescriptions etc here in Scotland.The labour “leadership”
Here will simply be told “how it is” by London labour ( ie.Tories in disguise)
Anyone who reads Wings already knows which direction Westminster wants to take us. The choice is really quite simple – The Scandinavian model or the USA model.
Anyone who thinks a NO vote is a vote to maintain the status quo is in for a rude awakening should they be on the winning side.
I dread the thought of the kind of society Westminster is going to create (Labour or Tory). The Rich will get richer and healthier. The poor will get poorer and die earlier.
Never mind we will still have our seat at the top table. We will be out of Europe and all the UKIPers will be back in the Tory fold planning the next wave of welfare cuts.
At the end of the next phase Scotland will be fully broken, the water privatised, renewables crushed and Holyrood stripped of power.
It really is a one time opportunity.
999 Which service do you require ? Ambulance. What is your credit card number ? I haven”t got one. That”s bad, you have health insurance ? No. Sorry, we cannot give you service at this time.
We can’t afford to take our health service for granted.
One of the biggest bettertogetherBBC vote no attacks is their endless Scotland’s NHS is very badly run by Scotland but could be much bettertogether run by the yewkay
Fears
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27780678
Warning
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27699601
Danger
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-25757870
Vote no or die in screaming agony
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-25383050
Critical.
theft of public assets good description Capella and that theft also covers public safety and democratic rights.
http://ragingbullshit.com/2014/02/10/tpp-ttip-a-one-way-ticket-to-a-corporate-paradise/
http://ragingbullshit.com/2014/05/19/ttip-the-silent-coup/
http://corporateeurope.org/financial-lobby/2014/07/leaked-document-shows-eu-going-trade-deal-will-weaken-financial-regulation
@Sinky
The likes of Penny Taylor have no intention of listening, or debating for that matter. They are among a group of powerful people in Scotland who are protecting their positions and status. If they engaged in a rational and calm manner, then they would have to acknowledge that the consequences of a No vote for Scotland are absolutely dire, particularly for the NHS, and the public sector in general. That is why their political representatives have resorted to calling independence supporters Nazis and fascism.
fascists even…
Just before the Blair Government was due to take over from the Tories, as a senior NHS figure in Kent, I was invited to listen to the Chief Exec of the Fabian Society ( Labour think tank ) appraise us of what was to replace Fundholding, the Tory vehicle for internal privatisation of the English NHS.
This was to be “targets” which he alleged would produce the same effects but without the stigmata. However this was small beer compared to what has happened since.
I was aware of the threat to European Government laws form TTIP, but hadn’t cottoned on to the threat to healthcare to which Macwhirter now alludes. This is truly frightening for the disadvantaged in our society in the event of a NO.
In light of this alone, maybe we should be looking at setting up a formal a Government in Exile if a disastrous NO vote achieved by the Establishment through fraud.
Surely we cannot just sit back and let this disaster happen without at least attempting to erode the credibility and legitimacy of the London Regime internationally.
If we lose our NHS, will we ever be able to forgive the unionist NO voters?
We just have to get the implications the Barnett Formula has on our services and the examples that are there to use out on to the doorsteps
Has NHS Scotland or the related Unions come out in favour of YES?
If not, why not?
Are all other public services not concerned this will happen to them.
If not, why not?
How is this information going to get to the people and especially the older ones who, apparently, are reluctant to vote Yes and may well be in greater need of such services?
What are YES Scotland doing about getting this kind of information out in the public domain?
I have no doubt our grapevine is doing its best.
Rev… I may be seeing things, but I’m fairly certain today is the 13th of July.
Without guessing the result on 18th Sept, I am certain of two things in three years time, either way ….
I will know I did the right thing by voting Yes.
I also know many who voted No will by then have realised they made the wrong decision.
I certainly hope this is in the light of a Yes win, not the dreadful alterative!
I ma beginning to understand the Irish strugegle and why it descended into violence, not that I would ever condone that in Scotland.
So far it has not happened but I fear there are forces out there who see violence as a natural progression of their position.
That’s it I’ve decided. Every NO voter I meet from now on will be getting asked if their Health insurance is up to date. When they say they don’t have any I will then advise them to get it sorted cause within 5 years they will get NO medical assistance of any kind without their credit card and health insurance cards being handed over! Let’s see them crawl out from under THAT rock!
No Rob we won’t.
Right now my nearest and dearest have been benefitting hugely from the Scottish NHS – I dread to think what the bill would have been for the surgeons , doctors and nurses efforts in my wee world.
Multiply that by others needs and the cost is astronomical.
Who was it said there were 24 hours to save the NHS?
Ah yes ! that multi millionaire Tony Blair!
Unfortunately a great many people in Scotland seem oblivious to what’s happening in england. This is largely due to the fact we have been protected by the Scottish Gvt due to their funding priorities.
A state of affairs at huge risk if we stay tied to this corrupt establishment.
Only heard about it yesterday by Twitter and Young English Greens. Only found out detail today via Herald and you.
And Yes I thought it was TITP not TTIP until I questioned it and why greens were against T In The Park.
This is not democracy.
There is one very solid argument that ALL Scottish political parties should be screaming at the top of their voices – but they won’t. It is quite simply that England & the UK are not the same legal entity.
However, going by the fact that the United Kingdom has already been split by Westminster patties as other than two Kingdoms and made into a union of four distinctive countries with Westminster now the de facto Parliament of the COUNTRY of England we have allowed them to sleep walk us into a Westminster’s Parliament of England being the superior parliament devolving English powers down to the three other subservient devolved countrie parliaments.
Our last chance to regain our own country, our own nationality our own kingdom and our very dignity is a whacking big YES majority in the referendum. Failure to do so will see us all being made English and the blood spilled by our brave Scottish ancestors having been spilt for nothing.
Maybe some no voting left leaning unionists should now begin to understand how much they won’t be better together. Their beloved Tory overlords have managed to get them onside in the destruction of the NHS. Couldn’t make it up.
TTIP. is Bad news full stop. Particularly the ISDS clause. There are several petitions online where you can register that you’re against it including change.org and 38 degrees.
heedtracker says:
Hi, That is exactly why the BBC have a scare a day on the SNHS. They are deeply compliant with Westminster policy on all fronts.
However, the bigger picture is a move by the US to monopolize the health services in other countries to their benefit, and the UK is happy with that, it is, as always, about money.
No country should sign up to this, and health is only one issue, and those who do, open their country to be sued for billions by huge US monopolies if the do things wrong.
That is really what it is all about, American profits, and American interference in other states for the benefit of the US. Of course, some here, mainly the elite, will also coin it is. We really need to be aware.
Actually there was a very good article on Bella about this a number of weeks ago. There is only one way we should go, and that is EFTA for these and many more reasons.
In addition to voting Yes, we can also send in our opinions to the consultation process about TTIP. 38 Degrees have a form you can fill in with your comments and it’ll then be sent to the EU consultation:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/tell-ttip-negotiators-not-to-let-corporations-sue-governments#petition
I think the consultation closes today.
Laura Vivanco says:
I signed this document, however after you submit, a whole lot more question then appear, which, because you see them after you “submit”, you cannot answer them. In my view it may make your submission invalid. Which if true is very worrying.
Sorry for going O/T so early but they said it wouldn’t happen, well erm I think this could be the first signs that it IS going to happen.
http://tinyurl.com/pfhp53g
Could be why UKIP is the only vehicle for change sotb. Trouble is, the NHS horse down there has already bolted from the stable. The irony is, English and Welsh voters want the same benefits that Holyrood under devolution has delivered for Scots. Democracy Westminster style? Er, No Thanks.
Choice £20 a week tax for NHS/Education or £25+ a week private health insurance. Look at the US.
£2Million fraud in free school in England
Vote no to save the NHS? Aye sure. Vote no to keep the Westminster Scots in a life style they have become accustomed to and wont need to worry about health care.
@ Les Wilson, the BBC’s central to blocking Scottish democracy but even the two main attacks on Scottish health care stem from neocon Westminster big public spending reduction and bigger private health care business trying to muscle in on all that huge state health care spend, er paradox.
There is so much profit potential in ukok health care, they can hardly do anything but take huge bites out of it. Senior health correspondent/shock trooper Ealonar Bradford has attacked public health care in Scotland from every single angle they can come up with for years, starting with the living nightmare that is old people, eek
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12805858
Dont get old and broke in the yewkay Scotland.
Those of us who work daily in the NHS in Scotland already have many difficulties to face, but the situation in much worse for our English colleagues who are facing changes which defy belief in a system still purporting to follow the principles of the NHS. It has been clear from NHS meetings I’ve attended this year that in the event of a ‘no’ vote the rather radical but forward thinking changes our service is going through will fail. This is not only because the current administration in Scotland have diverted monies to reduce the changes here and have no more to divert, not only because further cuts are already announced, but also because were there to be a change in the balance in Holyrood towards the MSPs who are seemingly not free to make the decision or disagree with the policies of their Westminster leads, the would be no political will to maintain the public service. With a ‘no’ vote, American system here we come.
Those who are on twitter and facebook should be getting this article link spread as far as possible.
“SNHS will be sold down the river witha NO vote”
@Les Wilson
The bits of the form that were filled in for me were OK (I checked the pdf of my submission) and it made things much quicker but you’re right that it could give a wrong answer because it does make assumptions e.g. it gives an automatic “No” to the question “Have you already invested in the USA?”
If you’re worried, you could fill in the questionnaire via the EU Commission’s website.
situation in = is above 🙂
How many NHS for Yes leaflets will I need for ‘Seafest’? I’m thinking a couple of hundred might not be enough after all.I’ve read it’s quite a busy event.
Folks on Facebook – follow and forward the NHS for Yes posts please! Have a look at their posters too.
Despite the avowedly anti-EU stance of both Tories and UKIP, they’re strangely quiet on TTIP. Greens in the EU have been campaigning against this insidious deal for years, but it’s only gaining prominence now.
A Yes vote will empower us to sort out a load of things but by the time Scotland takes its place in Europe as an independent nation, TTIP may well be a fait acompli.
obby your elected representatives NOW to clarify their position on this sleekit piece of corporate corruption.
TTip will cause the privatisation of the NHS in scotland. We must fight this with all we have. Yes for an NHS.
Well then.
YES wins the referendum. Continuing EU membership confirmed/offered by the EU, but EU/USA TTIP negotiations are progressing. Scotland would be faced with a choice.
NO wins the referendum. Scotland has no choice on TTIP and EU membership.
But then of course we have a similar situation with Trident.
(YES wins) choice vs no choice (NO wins).
Essentially what the UK is very quickly becoming is nothing more than 63 million extra potential customers to the American market worth a trillion dollars per year by fully exploiting the TTIP.
That’s how the tories see us.
Les Wilson _ Laura Vivenco – I too signed the anti TTIP petition, filling in my details, then a short comment and then submitted. All I was then asked to do was type in a ‘captcha'(? you know what I mean) correctly. That was it. No further questions.
In the event of a NO vote, people who dabble in the stock market are advised to invest in insurance companies, whose shares will inevitably skyrocket. Unfortunately, most of those voting the other way have already been stripped of whatever they may have had available to be able to participate in this massive bonanza. One wonders if that was part of the plan all along, and the threat of losing such huge potential profits is what motivates the NO campaigners in their ever-increasingly desperate bleatings exhorting us to be sensible.
@chipmonkey
If you can get hold of 1000 NHS leaflets hopefully we can share them all with the public. If not this time then next.
@TJenny
Yes, that’s right. The reason is that when you fill in the petition via the 38 Degrees site, you fill in your personal response to the main question and 38 Degrees puts in standard answers to the other questions for you, mostly with “no comment.”
I contributed to the TTIP campaign http://www.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns. First go round we crashed the consultation servers (or else they wanted to block responses en mass). We’d already been asked to submit our comments in our own words or else standard-email responses would be discounted. I’ve now resubmitted my response (38 Degrees stored all responses and we could recover them with a preface noting it was a resubmission).
The campaign is still on the website at the page above as I write.
The NHS in England will be £30Billion short by 2020. Pro rata Scotland could lose £3Billion? If Scotland votes NO.
There has been something that has bothered me for decades. Why are not the Scottish academic legal experts disecting the legality of the present Westminster setup that seems to totally be at odds with the seemingly straightforward wording of The Treaty of Union?
There is no doubt the Treaty only has two signatories. There seems no doubt the two signatries are Kingdoms – not countries. Historic documents prove that in 1706/7 the Kingdom of England included both Wales & Ireland.
There are thus no other British Kingdom in the United Kingdom than Scotland and England. It is thus a bipartite United Kingdom, a title that indicates it refers to the Royal Realm and the legislature of Westminster is legally, “The Parliament of the bipartite United Kingdom”. Thus that United Kingdom still has two independent legal systems.
Are these Scottish legal people really staying silent in order to totally destroy their own country’s legal system? Have they, like much of our PROUD Scottish political figures sold our country out for English gold?
The Westminster system is now no longer actually a bipartite parliament of two equally sovereign kingdoms parliaments but is composed of a Westminster that is a de facto Parliament of the Country of England ruling over three subserviant country parliaments.
Can this really be legal? After all, our kingdom of Scotland’s legal system is largely based upon the legal fact her people are sovereign and have never been asked to, or have given away, their sovereignty.
Laura Vivanco – cheers for that. 🙂
‘The U.S. ranks worst among 11 wealthy nations in terms of “efficiency, equity and outcomes” despite having the world’s most expensive health care system’.
Time Magazine:
http://time.com/2888403/u-s-health-care-ranked-worst-in-the-developed-world/
It’s great if you can afford it, but there are literally tens of thousands of people in the States who have been bankrupted by healthcare costs for their families.
@ Dr Ew
A Yes vote will empower us to sort out a load of things but by the time Scotland takes its place in Europe as an independent nation, TTIP may well be a fait acompli.
I would hope that if this treaty was in for e by the time Scotland is ready to take it’s place in the EU the powers that be would walk away from the EU and find it’s trading partners in EFTA.
However, one wonders if the EU’s signing the treaty would affect the EFTA countries as they, I believe, subscribe, pro rata, to the EU and are bound by it’s treaties.
Lesley-Anne, and indeed everybody, if you are posting a link to a paper like the Telegraph please let us know exactly what it is we’ll be clicking and giving some money too, that way we have a choice.
Sorry Harry I keep forgetting 🙁
From my understanding the effect of Barnett is that if public spending in England goes up then the block grant goes up by 10.05% of the increase, equally if spending goes down in England then the grant goes down by the same 10.05%
This disproportionally impacts on Scotland’s grant when it comes to cuts. If spending increase from £100 to £110, then is cut, then the result is £99.
Is this right? Are the cuts in Scotland going to be even more due to the way the block grant is modified?
So they’ve finally found a way to privatise the NHS in Scotland should there be a no vote, even though it may be a long drawn out affair, the outcome is well, inevitable. Hopefully it won’t come to this, and we will vote yes.
If we do vote yes I have a vision of Cuba and America when it comes to health care, with regards to Scotland and the rest of the UK.
According to today’s Scottish (cough) daily express, it is Independence that threatens the NHS.
A Yes vote could damage your Health
https://archive.today/Qm5do
Oh and they do have another scarestory to boot.
Yes vote would lead to run on banks
https://archive.today/lZp5E
I think you’ll need to copy and paste the link into your address bar.
A quarter of a million pounds of taxpayers money wasted, due to Better Together’s blunders, whilst printing their lying leaflets. Better Together don’t care why should they its not their money, after all.
http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/9452-p14-million-of-public-cash-wasted-after-uk-govt-anti-indy-leaflet-blunder
The prospects for staying with the union get bleaker and bleaker and the Scottish press know it, but prefer to hide it rather than publicise it. They are failing the people of Scotland and expect them to finance their activities. It’s hardly a bargain. Selling them down the river springs to mind.
Invest in private healthcare folks. There’s big profits to be made and a high proportion of Westminster politicians already have financial interests in the sector.
Nae luck if you can’t afford to invest. The future as planned by Westminster is not for you 🙁
First things first, not just American corporations but specifically Chinese corporations, as well. The Pacific bridge was paved by the Trans Pacific Partnership, which does pretty much what the TTIP does. As such, TTIP standards will now be set by China. As has probably been pointed out already, these include health, employment and environment. Charming.
Stoopod says:
Are you silly.
Aha, yo are are a ukip
So silly
byeee
The Lewisham case was the reason for clause 118 of the care bill being rushed through (they won) It beggars disbelief that people can not seeing what is happening to the NHS….The health & social care act 2012 : abolishes NHS
Removes the duty on the sec of state to secure and provide health care for all : Abdication act.
Introduces insurance structures based on us model.
Gives sec of state legal powers to create a market which will allow providers to pick and choose which patients will get care, what services they will provide and what they will be charged for.
its an uphill struggle to get this over to people, even in my own profession.
There’s none as blind as those who will not see………..
@ craigp
The list of those named MP’s/Peers makes for uncomfortable reading 200+ . But explains alot!
@Stoopod says: 13 July, 2014 at 3:31 pm
“Is this right? Are the cuts in Scotland going to be even more due to the way the block grant is modified?”
Well actually it is worse than that, Stoopod. The Barnett Consequentials are indeed both positive and negative depending upon English spending but they have another little wheeze that is a good little earner for England.
Not every English function has Barnett Consequentials. Here’s a few examples for you. The cost of the London Olympics had no Barnett Consequentials but Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland contributed a per capita sum in tax for them, Same for the Dome, the, “National”, Museeums, galleries and concert halls. The Chunnel and its infrastructure, The New London Sewerage System, London Cross-Rail, the Refurbishment of every London rail & bus terminal, The grant to start up the Transport for London scheme, HS1 & HSII – to name but a few.
Panda, not sure what the reply meant.
My question is, most people assume (well I did) that if there is a cut in budget then Scotland’s grant goes down by 8.3% (pop share) but looking into Barnett my reading of it is that it goes down by 10.05% The difference to the grant is 0.5bn between the two percentages.
Is this correct, will the cuts in England have a 2% greater impact on Scotland? Or have I not got Barnett right in my head yet?
Remind me who the biggest threat to the world is?
Does Trident protect us from Neoliberal extremism?
Thanks Robert. I think that many of the No voters do not understand the mechanics behind how Scotland is financed, that is part of the problem. If people look at the real details then a No vote makes absolutely no sense.
Reminds me of this prophetic little number
//m.youtube.com/watch?v=txrILqlaUlE
Here is a petition run by 38 degrees against TTIP. The consultation finishes TODAY (Sunday). In views of Iain McWhirter’s concerns maybe Wings readers would also like to sign an objection?
http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2014/07/10/ttip-eu-consultation/
The people running the petition are worried about the implications for the NHS (in England) but as Iain points out, and Dr Phillippa Whitford (Women for Indy) we can’t be immune in Scotland as long as Westminster holds the purse strings.
Please consider writing.
Stoopod
I don’t know and regrettably, nor do you.
If Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool have such a problem, I am sorry. Id they chose to be in England and invite these looters into their teasuries, I cannot opine.
There would indeed be cause for concern if the NHS were to be included in the TTIP agreement.
However, the plan is to exclude the NHS and other European public health programmes from TTIP in order to protect them from legal challenges by US corporations. This has already been quite widely reported. See, for example:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb1e1102-085e-11e4-9380-00144feab7de.html#axzz37MkOfUpx
JimnArlene says:
How many No foot soldiers are selling this, door to door?
Around nine.
(as per the ‘Legion’ photos from yesterday)
This is already happening in Scotland today. But what chance does the NHS have when the health minister makes decisions based on how it affects his standing in his constituency?
Panda
Bizarre reply, for some reason I think you think I’m some kind of troll!
I was just trying to get some of the finer points of Barnett right in my head, so when I’m asked about it I can be as informed as I can be.
In essence any cuts to the English public spending has a more significant impact on ours.
In reality the ‘West Lothian Question’ doesn’t really exist. Apart from education content and possibly guidance to NHS England and council funding structure, every decision made by WM will affect Scotland’s budget disproportionately.
You mean instead of how it affects his chances of ermine and a gold plated pension like a true SLAB salaryman?
O/T, but no the less important.
Israeli forces now targeting hospitals with shell fire, in Gaza, even though its classed as illegal, under international law. Israels rocket fire has killed at least 120 people so far.
http://972mag.com/we-stay-together-or-we-leave-this-world-together/93427/
TTIP seems to make little impact on television or newspaper reporting. We are being allowed very little knowledge of it, there are some sections which are being kept from the public. We don’t know the positions of the major political parties on this issue, the topic was not raised at the EU elections, not EVEN by UKIP who, you think, could have gotten a lot of mileage from this ‘ceding of sovereignty’. Do you wonder why?
Here is a breakdown of my personal private healthcare costs in the US. For a family of 4, I contribute $7K/year and my work pays $5K/year. That entitles me to pay $100 every time someone visits a Dr. A specialist visit is usually between $500-$1K. I have a $2.5K deductible per person and $7K deductible per family. After that they pay the costs. So basically I have to pony up $20K a year before the insurance starts kicking in proper. When we had my first kid the bills for the birth racked up to $50K.
And of course, I am one of the lucky ones as I actually have insurance.
There’s a profit motive at every stage and a fear of being sued for misdiagnoses that drives Dr’s to do every test/treatment they can think of.
Anybody like the sound of it?
The young people I met at the event in Brechin yesterday were so pleased to have a conversation – I was also heartened by the number of women who took an Aye Right leaflet, this is not about war – this is a revolution of peace.
I urge all of you to wear your Yes badges – every day now I have people initiating discussion, I am confident we can do this.
Neocon Brian Monteith former Tory MSP trashes Dr Whitford
in this article.
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/brian-monteith-claims-nhs-dying-storm-in-teacup-1-3473539
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ttip-labour-will-not-back-eu-us-trade-deal-without-nhs-safeguards-1453082
Ian Murray, MP, Edinburgh South says Labour will not back this without guarantees for the NHS.
Did a sticker have an effect?
@nycgype.
You need to do a write-up about the US situation so that it can be ahared to every household in Scotland.
Aye, I may just do that. It’s horrendous. Dr’s and specialists can’t even tell you how much they will charge so the first time you find out is when the bill drops through the door. The other trick is to send your tests to outsourced labs who aren’t covered by insurance. We’ve had these mount up to $700 because they send it to the wrong lab. There is an incentive to misdirect people who can afford to pay to out of network services as they can charge what they want and will screw your credit (mortgage/car loans etc) if you don’t pay up. The in network services usually have a max rate agreed with the insurer. For people who they don’t think can pay there is no incentive to give them any treatment at all as they’ll more likely spend the money on frivolous things like rent and food instead of extortionate medical bills.
.
Why America is NOT the greatest country in the world, anymore.
@ Susan
“This is a genuine risk to our health service. There seem to be only two routes to avoid privatisation: voting Yes in September or hoping the UK will leave the EU, which would protect us from TTIP..”
That makes no sense Susan. Vote yes and remain in the EU – be under the spell of TTIP and other Business Friendly Policy. Or stay in uKOK to potentially leave the UK and not be under TTIP’s spell.
TTIP mainly and only point is to benefit Big Business, whether that be NHS Contracts or anything else they can stick a ‘For Sale’ sign on. Being in the EU is not all it’s cracked up to be. Don’t get me wrong it does have it’s benefits, but there are other issues I’m sure lurking in the dark..
has everyone forgot:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/westminster-is-forever-in-thrall-to-the-interests-of-big-business.23663320
or
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/obamacare-trade-superversion-subversion-threat-state
Not forgetting the sale of our beloved Royal Mail – that wasn’t carried out with consumer choice and benefit at the heart of it. And look who benefitted form that – Big Business and certain individuals (all who I’m sure have offshore hide always for their mattress money)
It’s an organisation for researchers, and the membership is mainly scientific or clinical researchers, working on health based topics. Being based in a University it does not surprise me in the least that 93% would be against independence, most researchers and academics I know are against it as they are worried about losing what little funding is left. None of them seem convinced of the opportunities for more support and funding for research in an independent Scotland and they are by far the most vocal and against independence group I have come across.
@Helen, I wonder how Academics for Yes is getting on.