{"id":2801,"date":"2015-01-22T16:38:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T16:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2015-01-23T11:44:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T11:44:21","slug":"costly-reality-ukip-nhs-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2801","title":{"rendered":"Costly reality of Ukip NHS plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the beleaguered NHS creaks this winter under the weight of a Tory-led reorganisation gone terribly wrong, Ukip leader Nigel Farage, the self-styled \u00e2\u20ac\u015bman of the people\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, admits to wanting to get rid of the health service completely.<\/p>\n

 
\nOn Tuesday (January 20), Farage said that he favoured an insurance-based healthcare system, adding that, because of an ageing population, \u00e2\u20ac\u015b[how we fund healthcare] will be a debate we are all going to have to return to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nHis latest comments come after being asked on the BBC about a 2012 video<\/a> which emerged last year of Farage resoundingly embracing a US-style system.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn the video, he was recorded as saying:<\/p>\n

 
\n“Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the marketplace of an insurance company than just us trustingly giving \u00c2\u0141100bn a year to central government and expecting them to organise the healthcare service from cradle to grave for us.”<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough the ex-City trader noted that his party rejected his vision of a privatised NHS, with Ukip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health spokesperson Louise Bours MEP confirming, documents leaked on Tuesday<\/a> (January 20) from a party meeting reveal a completely different story.<\/p>\n

 
\nMinutes from the meeting show the extent to which Ukip is ideologically opposed to a public health service that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been the cornerstone of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s welfare state for more than half a century.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn the leaked documents, a Ukip National Executive Committee member \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfeels that the NHS will either be bureaucratic or business-orientated. We can focus on stopping health tourism; we do not have to commit ourselves much further. In the longer term we want a radical approach but we cannot do that in this time frame.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAnother member notes, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe cannot change [the NHS] wholesale because the public love it. When the sky does not fall in from the current changes, we will be able to come up with a radical policy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nOther comments from the meeting minutes support an undeniable truth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that, if Ukip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top brass has its way, the very idea of a public health service will be challenged, and the party will lie, even to its own members, about its true intentions.<\/p>\n

 
\nUkip unravelling<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe future of the NHS is not the only thorn in the side of Ukip, a party that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beginning to fall apart months before the election.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnother document leaked to the Mirror <\/em><\/a>reveals Farage telling Ukip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership that they \u00e2\u20ac\u015bare not passing the credibility test as a party\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and that the party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problem is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpromising the earth to everybody.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe can say anything at the doorstep,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the document notes, in a shameless admission that Ukip, far from being the party of the people, is not even the party representing its own<\/em> people in good faith.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite political director Jennie Formby said that the evidence against Ukip being a credible party at all continues to mount.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe latest revelations prove yet again that Ukip cannot be trusted,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Formby. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTheir disingenuousness knows no bounds \u00e2\u20ac\u201c behind closed doors, they brazenly admit to attempting to fleece their own supporters.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor Ukip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top brass, the upcoming election is a power grab that, if successful, would allow them to dismantle all that we hold dear with the only beneficiaries being big business and the financiers who bankroll their party.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor regular voters like our members , the stakes this May couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be higher \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the future of the NHS, public services and the welfare state all hang in the balance,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 
\nFormby went on to say that the so-called party of working people is anything but.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUkip\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights firmly in their sights too,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat working people see as protection, they see as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098red tape\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to be abolished as soon as possible.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nWildly inefficient<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nBut what about Farage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suggestion that an insurance-based model is needed to replace an NHS in crisis?<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough the Ukip leader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s libertarian ideology holds market forces to be the pinnacle of \u00e2\u20ac\u015befficiency\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, insurance-based healthcare systems are often the most inefficient and costly of all.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn the US, the only country almost entirely dependent on a for-profit, private insurance-based healthcare system, health spending per person is through the roof. The latest figures show that, annually, the US is poised to spend roughly $10,000 (\u00c2\u01416,700) per person.<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nAnd this incredibly costly system often does not translate into better health outcomes, with the infant mortality rate, for example, being surprisingly high.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn comparison, the UK spends roughly \u00c2\u01412,000 per person, but scores high on various measures of quality in care.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFarage needs to have a better understanding of the health service in the UK and health services in the US,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer for health Barrie Browne.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLast year the Commonwealth Institute, which is a highly regarded research body based in Washington DC, published a report<\/a> on health services around the world,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Brown added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe NHS in the UK came top and the USA was 11 places below. QED Nigel!\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the beleaguered NHS creaks this winter under the weight of a Tory-led reorganisation gone terribly wrong, Ukip leader Nigel Farage, the self-styled \u00e2\u20ac\u015bman of the people\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, admits to wanting to get rid of the health service completely.   On Tuesday (January 20), Farage said that he favoured an insurance-based healthcare system, adding that, because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Privatised NHS, insurance-based healthcare \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we find out what Ukip really wants to do ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2803,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions\/2803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}