UK Health System Hits Back at US Critics

[steven johnson]

Republicans' claim that British patients are robbed of their medical choices? False

Sen. Edward Kennedy, who suffers from a brain tumor wouldn't be treated in the UK because he is too old. False.

British death panels, false again. Geez, I wish Sarah Palin would quit makin' stuff up.

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's health care service says it is sick of being lied about.

Pilloried by right-wing critics of President Barack Obama's health care plan, Britain's National Health Service, known here as the NHS, is fighting back.

''People have been saying some untruths in the States,'' a spokesman for Britain Department of Health said in a telephone interview. ''There's been all these ridiculous claims made by the American health lobby about Obama's health care plan ... and they've used the NHS as an example. A lot of it has been untrue.''

A particularly outlandish example of a U.S. editorial, printed in the Investor's Business Daily, claimed that renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who is disabled, ''wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.''

Hawking, who was born and lives in Britain, personally debunked the claim. ''I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS,'' he told The Guardian newspaper. Investor's Business Daily has since corrected the editorial.




TUK Health System Hits Back at US Critics

[Octafish]

1. Kick for Truth.

Rev Moon knows we can use it.