By James Meek in the London Review of Books
An excellent summary description of the original intent of the National Health Service (NHS), and record of its present subversion.
When the NHS was “created in 1948, it had three core principles. It was to be universal: anyone and everyone would receive medical treatment whenever they needed it. It was to be comprehensive, covering all forms of healthcare, from dentistry to cancer. And it was to be free at the point of delivery: no matter how much the system cost to run, no matter how much or how little any individual had contributed to those costs, no matter how expensive their treatment or how many times they went to the doctor, they’d never be billed for it.”
The Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley “chose 19 July, the day Rupert and James Murdoch had the media transfixed, to let slip that from next April a billion pounds’ worth of NHS services…will be opened up to competitive bids from the private sector. The doctor and Daily Telegraph blogger Max Pemberton described it as ‘the day they signed the death warrant for the NHS.’ ”
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n18/james-meek/its-already-happened