I am in London to offer a series of workshops on strategic restructuring for UK nonprofits leaders. While riding into town in a traditional London black cab and chatting with the driver, the topic of US health reform came up (he raised it). The cabbie had expressed fairly conservative views on other topics in our hour-long, traffic clogged, drive. But when it came to health care he just could not understand how the US tolerates our current health care “system.”

I couldn’t help him, there is no defense. In the UK, health care is a right, and is not generally the political football we use it for in the US. Brits across the political spectrum support their national health insurance arrangement as the only sane manner to address a nation’s health needs. Everyone here is covered, and everyone pays in, along with their contributions to the UK equivalent of Social Security, charmingly referred to as Old Age Pensions. Premium amounts vary with income and circumstances, not age, gender and health condition.

As a part-time semi-retired cabbie, my new friend pays the equivalent of $20 a month for his coverage. As an American, it was both refreshing and embarrassing to compare health care systems. If health reform dies, it won’t get easier.

Tags: government, healthcare, nonprofit, politics, Public sector, travel, Trends

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Assorted Musings, Travels, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.