In October 2019 the Guardian carried an article about the threat to the NHS of US style healthcare. A reader submitted a comment, chosen as an ‘Editor’s pick’, which read:
“I am an American citizen married to an English woman and living in the UK. My admonition to UK citizens is to fight to your very last breath to keep US-style healthcare out of your country, and to defend your NHS as if your life depends on it. Because it will. When my wife was living with me in the US, I couldn’t get her to go to a doctor, because she was afraid of how much it would cost. And we HAD health insurance. I have witnessed your NHS treat her for a basal cell carcinoma, via surgery and subsequent radiation therapy. And this year she was diagnosed with mitral valve failure, which was brilliantly repaired by an NHS cardiac surgeon. Her care has been exemplary. And it hasn’t cost us a single penny. When I tell my US friends all of this, their jaws drop. They would literally do almost ANYTHING to have such a system available to them. DO NOT let the US healthcare companies get their fingers into your NHS. You will regret it for generations.”
The trouble is, a US trade deal (which will be vital for this country post Brexit) will be dependent upon opening up the NHS to US contractors. It’s only time before the government starts to say that the NHS wasn’t capable of dealing with COVID. Their think tanks will argue, in very reasonable terms, that funding reforms alongside greater operational freedom are needed so that the NHS is better able to deal with any future crisis. Over time we will see the introduction of personal health budgets, insurance top-ups and gradual privatisation of primary care. Eventually the N in NHS will be in name only. Brexit built the structure, COVID opened the door.