Re: But of course
"It's the same in The Netherlands; there's a public health system that works fine, [...] that healthcare privatisation is the way forward."
Don't get that. I'm currently living in NL and paying into the hybrid system here: 1. health insurance (choice of insurance companies and packages, they have to accept everybody, basic premium approx. EUR 100/month); 2. health charge through the tax system (income-dependent, in my case costing rather more than my insurance premium).
All GPs are in the private sector (mostly self-employed, like in the UK) and hospitals, etc. are mostly independent, not-for-profit trusts I think. There are some for-profit-hospitals, but they have a habit of going bust, or provide only a v limited range of services.
To my mind that's a hybrid system. And even if the VVD (main right of centre party) should want further privatisation that's unlikely to happen as most other parties probably wouldn't support that. (Governments are always coalitions here so the swings to the left and right are attenuated.)
Fortunately I have very little direct experience of the health service, but I have been supporting an elderly Dutch friend over the last year or two who's had some significant health problems and I've been v impressed by the standard of care he's received. As Mrs H said about one of the hospitals nearby: it looks more like a good hotel, with an atmosphere of calm. At the peak of the corona stuff I had to take another friend to A&E after a fall (and a telephone consultation with her GP) and everything was operating normally, within a few hours she'd had an X-ray, MRI scan and assessments by several doctors (fortunately it turned out not to be serious). So don't think there's been any defunding, certainly not to breaking point. Don't get that impression from the newspapers either - what's your source of information?
FYI: politically I'm just to the right of the centre and believe in a market economy - most of the time.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
