Prime Minister Boris Johnson has gushingly thanked the National Health Service (NHS) for having ‘saved’ his life.
Oh, dear.
This is going to backfire horribly.
Yes, of course, I understand why Boris is relieved to have survived his brush with death; yes, of course, it’s quite proper that he should wish to thank the doctors and nurses who cared for him. But why did he have to go and ruin it by attributing his happy outcome to Britain’s bloated, sclerotic, parasitical, inefficient, socialised healthcare system?
Boris has claimed “the NHS saved my life, no question”.
It is hard to find the words to express my debt to the NHS for saving my life.
The efforts of millions of people across this country to stay home are worth it. Together we will overcome this challenge, as we have overcome so many challenges in the past. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/HK7Ch8BMB5
— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) April 12, 2020
To appreciate the dishonesty — or, let’s be polite, naivety — of this statement, just ask yourself one question: “If the NHS didn’t exist, would Boris have died?”
The answer is almost certainly ‘No’. Every advanced economy has a healthcare system. There is little if any evidence to suggest that Britain’s socialistic, top-heavy, rationing model — devised immediately after the Second World War — leads to better outcomes than, say, Germany’s, or the U.S.’s, Hong Kong’s, or Singapore’s. In fact, in almost every case, patient outcomes in the UK are a lot worse.
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