Why the NHS sucks

It has been said that the NHS is one of the greatest British institutions, and was one of the greatest successes of the post-war labour government. However, there has been much opposition to the reforms which have been proposed by the coalition government, saying it would lead to privatization of the NHS (like it's a bad thing). Basically, I think social healthcare in general is a bad thing, and actually brings about WORSE healthcare for the working classes, rather than better healthcare.

Myth 1: It would make healthcare unaffordable for the poor.

There are many basic things that humans need to survive, which are arguably more important than healthcare. Food, clothing, electricity and housing for example. However, there are no calls for the government to nationalise Tesco's, or to take money out of everybody's salary to pay for Primark clothes. If you can't afford it, the government pays for it via welfare and benefits, not by nationalising the whole company. And as for housing, the amount of council houses there are are very limited (but thats for another day), and the government are more likely to pay the rent for you now than to put you in social housing.

Myth 2: Private healthcare put profits before people

This is a complete myth. According to WHO, France have the best healthcare system in the world, which is a combination of Private and public healthcare. Basically, if you cant afford it, the government will pay for it, but it doesn't mean that the government actually run the hospitals. Yes there should be some government intervention for the very poor, but privatisation means competition, and nobody is going to spend their hard earned cash on a healthcare system which doesn't care for people.

Fact: NHS deprives patients of choice, and is nothing more than a glorified cartel.

Only the very rich can afford private healthcare like BUPA, and if you're lucky then you're employer might offer "top-up" healthcare. For the rest of us, we have to take what we're given and, and the quality of care that we get largely depends on our postcodes. The fact that there is only one system allows drug companies to charge extortionate prices for drugs, allows for poor quality care without any reprocussions (think stafford hospital) and allows to the NHS to be stupidly expensive and overstaffed (it is the biggest employer in the UK). Many of the fears about a private healthcare system have been scaremongered by greedy GP's who are afraid that people might wake up to this gravy train. Just think what would happen if Tesco's was the only supermarket available? Would there be any motivation to have the cheapest prices and the best customer service if they knew their customers didn't have a choice?

To conclude, I'm not against the government paying for healthcare, especially to those who can't afford it. But the NHS is one big monopolistic dinosaur. For good quality healthcare, we need competition, and that includes some sort of privatisation. If it works for Gas, Electricity, food and clothing, then why not healthcare?