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Mar. 13th, 2011
A brief thought on health systems
Mar. 13th, 2011 02:08 pmI am not wedded to the idea of a single-provider healthcare system (as the NHS currently is), or to the idea that the NHS should provide all of its care by employing people, rather than acting as a centralised system for buying healthcare (and ensuring that it is of high quality). France has a system of compulsory health insurance mixed with voluntary health insurance, with a mix of public, private and voluntary hospitals and organisations providing the actual service - and it is apparently the best in the world.
I _am_ wedded to a system that doesn't let people die (or leave them in chronic pain/disabled) because they don't have the money to pay for care. And thus I am in favour of socialised healthcare, of one form of another.
And I am also in favour of a system that's coherent, and structured for the long term.
Which is why I'm not really fussed about what direction the NHS is dragged in - so long as it is one that has some evidence behind it, and one that subsequent governments aren't going to instantly reverse. There's no point party A making a set of changes if party B are going to change everything back as soon as they gain power.
I just can't think of a way of making all of the major parties sit down, look at the evidence of what makes a system work well, and hammer out something that they can all live with. Certainly not under the current system where the party not in power sees its job as opposition, and the party in power sees its job as dragging things as far as they can in their ideological direction so that bits of their policies stick even if most of them are reversed.
I _am_ wedded to a system that doesn't let people die (or leave them in chronic pain/disabled) because they don't have the money to pay for care. And thus I am in favour of socialised healthcare, of one form of another.
And I am also in favour of a system that's coherent, and structured for the long term.
Which is why I'm not really fussed about what direction the NHS is dragged in - so long as it is one that has some evidence behind it, and one that subsequent governments aren't going to instantly reverse. There's no point party A making a set of changes if party B are going to change everything back as soon as they gain power.
I just can't think of a way of making all of the major parties sit down, look at the evidence of what makes a system work well, and hammer out something that they can all live with. Certainly not under the current system where the party not in power sees its job as opposition, and the party in power sees its job as dragging things as far as they can in their ideological direction so that bits of their policies stick even if most of them are reversed.
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I slept like shit last night. Lay in bed stressing for an age, and then after I dropped off Julie woke me up again because I was apparently doing an impression of someone gripping a live wire. And then it took me another hour to fall asleep after that.
The reason being that I was volunteering to hand out fliers with the Yes To Fairer Votes local organisation. And I was stressed that my day would involve arguing with people in the street, so I lay in bed, with my subconscious loudly rehearsing the arguments pro and anti, until about 2am.
As it happened, I didn't end up arguing with any pro-FPTP people at all. Only one person came across that way, and they simply exclaimed "It's shite" and stomped off. The only other person I talked to who was anti-AV wanted full PR, and felt that voting for AV would tell politicians that we didn't want proper PR. I tried to explain that voting for FPTP wasn't going to make politicians think that we wanted PR, but they repeated "I don't believe that." three times to different tacks and then headed off too.
As it was most people just took a leaflet and wandered off. A fair number didn't take a leaflet, which was entirely fair enough, but a few people stopped to ask what it was all about and chat for a minute or two. I don't know how many minds we changed - but so long as people came out of it with more of an idea that there was a referendum (which quite a few didn't seem to know about), and some info that they can then go off and read more about, I'm happy.
Home now, and collapsed in tiredness. Julie's been doing PhD stuff while I was out, and has gone for a nap, so I suspect that I'm due some Bayonetta...
The reason being that I was volunteering to hand out fliers with the Yes To Fairer Votes local organisation. And I was stressed that my day would involve arguing with people in the street, so I lay in bed, with my subconscious loudly rehearsing the arguments pro and anti, until about 2am.
As it happened, I didn't end up arguing with any pro-FPTP people at all. Only one person came across that way, and they simply exclaimed "It's shite" and stomped off. The only other person I talked to who was anti-AV wanted full PR, and felt that voting for AV would tell politicians that we didn't want proper PR. I tried to explain that voting for FPTP wasn't going to make politicians think that we wanted PR, but they repeated "I don't believe that." three times to different tacks and then headed off too.
As it was most people just took a leaflet and wandered off. A fair number didn't take a leaflet, which was entirely fair enough, but a few people stopped to ask what it was all about and chat for a minute or two. I don't know how many minds we changed - but so long as people came out of it with more of an idea that there was a referendum (which quite a few didn't seem to know about), and some info that they can then go off and read more about, I'm happy.
Home now, and collapsed in tiredness. Julie's been doing PhD stuff while I was out, and has gone for a nap, so I suspect that I'm due some Bayonetta...