Britain fares badly in international health leagues
According to new OECD figures, Britain fares badly in international health comparitors among developed nations. We may not be at the bottom of the league, but we are pretty far down. British victims of cancer and heart disease, in particular, have a lower survival rate than almost anywhere else in the industrialised world. And, contrary to widespread belief, per capita spending on healthcare in the UK is above the OECD average.
One striking feature of the survey is that the former Communist states, which once ran healthcare regimes similar to Britain's – that is, funded wholly out of general taxation – have caught up with us. Small wonder that no other country – pace, Michael Moore - wants to copy the NHS.
The nation we should all be copying, of course, is Singapore, whose system of personal healthcare accounts delivers considerably better outcomes than ours for less than half the price. It is worth repeating that, in Singapore as in the rest of the developed world, the state pays for the healthcare needs of those who cannot afford it. Poor Singaporeans none the less benefit from a system in which choice and competition drive up standards for everyone.
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