Remember this? “We” wanted it – now we’ll pay for it. Tough.

 

Propaganda works and propaganda hammered out over weeks, nay: months, years and decades, works best. There’s not one Western nation where health care has become the national religion, but ‘we’ are obsessed by it. It has become the political playball of election strategists, Labour or Tories: no difference. From Blair’s ‘24 hours to save the NHS’ in 1997 to Johnson’s 2020 Lockdown madness, calling on us to ‘protect the NHS’, to yesterday’s tax increase: no difference. Actual facts don’t matter – rainbows and clapping do. 

The funny thing is that, regardless of who sits in No 10, ‘saving the NHS’ has always been the one argument to silence any critics. It’s why Labour, so ‘successful’ when screaming about ‘Toreee cuts’ and ‘Toreeee Austeriteee’, never mention that actually, the NHS budget has risen year by year under Tory governments. 

The other funny thing is that, thanks to propaganda, generations have been brainwashed into thinking that “The NHS” are only those nurses and doctors they see in hospitals: how can you not want to pay those angels properly! Don’t ask however about what the ‘managers’ behind the scenes earn. Too many of the top NHS bosses earn more than even the PM. Writing for the DM Christopher Snowdon, Institute of Economic Affairs, presents some hard facts:

“Over the next three years, all the money raised through the new Health and Social Care Levy — some £36 billion — is heading to the NHS. That’s in addition to a £5.4 billion NHS handout announced only a couple of days ago. Another £41 billion for the NHS, just like that: roughly equivalent to an entire new Ministry of Defence. […] In 2019, the UK spent 10.3 per cent of GDP on healthcare — some £177 billion — and the same as Denmark. Only four of 27 EU countries — Germany, France, Sweden and Austria — spent more.” (link)

“We” are paying more for ‘Our Health’ than for the Defence of the Realm. So why are the outcomes compared to other nations so dismal? Why have waiting times always been with us? Why do we count ourselves lucky when we ‘get the operation’ we need after a wait of 26 weeks, ‘before covid’? Perhaps these numbers explain why:

“The UK has 2.5 hospital beds for every 1,000 people, close to half the EU average and less than a third of the number in Germany — or even Bulgaria. […] We have 2.8 practising doctors for every thousand people, fewer than any EU country bar Poland and Cyprus and well below the EU average of 3.7 per 1,000.” (link)

“We” are paying more for less – let that sink in. “We” pay to save this system of ‘health administration’ which has decreed that GPs are the ‘gate keepers’, that no one can see a specialist without their GP’s say-so. This system had successfully blocked access to GPs well ‘before covid’. Now it’s even worse.

There’s more: we can’t buy medicines ‘over the counter’ from pharmacies which were available even a few years ago, so helping ourselves without a GP’s input has become impossible. Since covid we’ve been told to ask Dr Google to ‘Save the NHS’ while at the same time we’re told not to do so on any account because ‘Dr knows best’. Never mind that most GPs also have to ask Dr Google … 

And for all that “we” pay and will go on paying ever more. I won’t reiterate that the uproar about ‘the young are paying for the old – how unfair’ is political sloganeering for transparent political gain. The same people who use this argument never ask if it’s fair that everybody paying into the system, old and young, is paying for all those who have never contributed but whom we must welcome with open arms. I well remember the outcry when the point of health tourism was raised a few years ago: how could one deny free help to people wealthy enough to pay for flights from Nigeria!

‘Tis also funny how no politician, red or blue, points out that ‘we’ are paying for all those tests and jabs which all those ‘new people’ are given – those coming across the Channel as well as those being flown in thanks to Blair’s war policies. Remember when people set up the charity ‘Help for Heroes’ because the then government had closed military hospitals and rehabilitation centres and ‘Our NHS’ didn’t have the money to treat them? No money for actual heroes, was there!

Now we have the spectacle of a PM riding high on another ‘fix’ to “Save the NHS”, cloaked in the shroud-waving ‘social care’ mantle – and it still isn’t sufficient:

“The Health Service will receive the vast majority of the £36billion raised by yesterday’s national insurance hike over the next three years, with social care receiving a £5.3billion slice. But health bosses said the settlement leaves a ‘significant shortfall’ and warned that millions of patients will still face long delays. The NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, which represent hospitals and health organisations, claimed it would still leave a funding gap of around £3.5billion a year for frontline services in England. They had wanted £10billion a year just to clear the patient backlog and additional costs arising from the pandemic.” (link)

That’s how important ‘social care’ is: only about a fifth of the money taken from us will be allocated to it. Funny how this £3.5bn ‘annual shortfall’ is the amount paid out on state pensions. Perhaps someone will eventually come up with the bright idea that saving on pension payouts will fill that gap needed to “Save the NHS”. Perhaps someone better tell those who cry ‘why must we pay for the old’ that they’re actually paying to save the Sacred Cow for which nothing will ever be enough – and that they actually asked for this.

I’ll disregard the pitiful performance of MPs who found it “difficult to oppose [the NI raise] because it was tied into extra spending on the NHS to cope with backlogs caused by the pandemic.” (paywalled link). They actually found it ‘difficult’ because it might interfere with their progress up that greasy pole to cabinet level.

However, when even Sir John Redwood finds it difficult to understand how this latest health tax is going to work (see his Diary entry this morning) then you know that there’s no hope. He suggests in that entry that an analysis of social care needs is necessary. Indeed, and a critical cost-benefit analysis of NHS expenditure is imperative. I’m not holding breath though. Who’d dare ask who actually benefits from all our money: us, the people, or them, the health managers and bosses!

The NHS, this ersatz national religion, has been with us for 73 years. Will we have to wait until it’s 79 years old before it comes crashing down round our ears, as was the fate of the former Soviet Union which was around for that length of time?

One person who certainly won’t be around to clear up the mess he created is the current PM. Ms Merkel needed 16 years as Chancellor to drive Germany against the wall – Johnson is like Ms Merkel on steroids: he will achieve that in a quarter of the time because he loves to be the ‘Saviour’ of yon Sacred Cow. After all, it’s what ‘Teh People’ want – or rather: what we’ve been told to want.

 

KBO!

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email