A reporter for Joe has been confronting UK residents with the cost of healthcare services and products in the US. The video comes amid reports that the Conservatives want to give US corporations access to our NHS in their post-Brexit trade deal. The result of that could eventually be US prices in UK hospitals.
People were particularly shocked at the average cost of having a baby in the US, which is around $10,000.
“If you’re poor, you’re dead”
The reporter demonstrates how shocking healthcare costs can get once privatisation sets in:
The cost of healthcare if Donald Trump gets his hands on our NHS:pic.twitter.com/td7oQAnNve
— James Wright (@wrightismight) December 3, 2019
Another striking cost is US hospitals charging people to hold their own baby after giving birth.
Trump in the UK
Corbyn says leaked government documents show that the US will have “total market access” to the NHS in a post-Brexit trade deal with the Conservatives. Indeed, in June 2019, Trump said the NHS is “on the table” in the negotiations.
Now, with less than two weeks until election day, Trump is in the UK. And he said:
I don’t even know where that rumour started
We have absolutely nothing to do with it and we wouldn’t want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter. We want nothing to do with it.
NHS privatisation
Although, there are many reasons for the concern over the Conservatives privatising the NHS:
- In 2004, Boris Johnson wrote a column arguing for more private involvement in the NHS.
- Foreign secretary Dominic Raab was among high profile Tories who co-authored a 2011 pamphlet that says: “private operators should be allowed into the service, and indeed should compete on price”.
- Private companies received 70% of NHS contracts in 2017.
Unless we fight them off, UK and US healthcare hawks will start making a killing off our sick relatives, friends and neighbours. Such eye-watering profit means the US is spending about 17% of its GDP on healthcare. That’s over double what the UK is spending and the US doesn’t even nearly cover everybody. These facts suggest that it’s economically and morally superior to provide such an essential service for public good rather than profit. Your vote on 12 December couldn’t be more important.
Featured image via Twitter – Joe / YouTube – BBC News
