The UK thinks WHAT about American healthcare?!?!?!?

Holy shit.

I was just told that UK bureaucrats look to the US as an exemplar of privatized health insurance. We have a guest staying with us from across the pond who told me a bit about how to the power players in the British government are systematically cutting health benefits to the disabled and piecing apart the revered (in my mind at least) NHS to sell off to their cronies.

WHAT?!?!? Have they not been listening to a thing I have said?

Here's what is going on, as far as I can surmise from the press, but be warned that the spin on this seems to be excellent:

• The UK has hired a French company, Atos, to review disability benefits in hopes of dropping a half million recipients of disability benefits--such as Personal Independence Payments, Disability Living Allowance, 
• Mobility services will be cut -- leaving disabled folks without a reasonable and affordable means to get around, including to and from work
•  More than a half million disabled people will be reassessed, and some 330,000 of them can expect to see benefits cuts or reduced

What's amazingly ironic is that Fox News looks to what the UK is doing as an exemplar for the US system. Ha! When discussing the topic, one Fox host notes that the UK hired a French firm to reevaluate disability claims. He asks, "Did it work?"

"It worked, in that it exposed a huge scam," the guest responds. Scam, you say? Let's talk about this "scam."

(This article from the Guardian is a great analysis on what's happening.)

Work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, also claims that there was a huge scam under the surface-- claiming that a 30% increase in those on disability benefits over the past few decades is due to fraud and abuse. 

The Department of Work and Pensions' own estimates put fraud at 0.5%, so where is this scam? Also, one can think of plenty of reasons--just off the top of one's head--why disability claims would go up 30% over the years. 

1. Rise in obesity (thanks, America, for leading the pack on this one)
2. People living longer (the UK allowed for people to continue receiving disability claims past retirement age in 1992, causing a sharp rise in disability claims)
3. There has been broader (and better) recognition of conditions 

Our guest thinks that while these officials in the UK government are doing what they think is best for the country, they are operating from a fundamental belief that disabled people are really just lazy, don't want to work, and/or want a free ride. SOUNDS FAMILIAR (ahem, Fox News/Tea Party).

One report shows a rise in verbal abuse towards disabled people. Yes, because that's what they need. People yelling at them. In addition to the disability that makes everyday life difficult at best. And now a French company is coming in and making really BAD assessments about who is fit for work.

"The work capability assessment, outsourced to Atos, a private healthcare organisation, has made it harder to qualify for the benefit, but the assessment process has been highly erratic, with thousands of patients with chronic, lifelong disabilities being wrongly found fit for work." 

A lot of these decisions -- claiming that disabled people are fit for work -- have been appealed and overturned. 

As the article points out, a lot of these people receiving Disability Living Allowance (often used to help get to and from work) are already living in poverty. Removing this allowance will plummet them further into poverty. 

Here's my commentary:
This issue isn't black and white. Nobody can claim that it is. Some conditions are the result of unhealthy lifestyles, and some disabilities can happen to anyone at anytime. If we want to really cut down on the number of folks on disability claims, then let's promote healthy lifestyles. Hey, let's start with an assessment of the food industry--that dirty, irresponsible gang of unfeeling thugs. Let's reform health insurance to reward healthy choices. 
What we shouldn't be doing is this: Cutting back on services that allow disabled people some ease and convenience in basic, everyday conveniences that the "abled" population takes for granted. Like getting around. Like being able to work. How can you claim that someone is "fit for work" when they have to spend 6 hours a day soaking and wrapping their feet because of complications of type 2 diabetes?

Instead of antagonizing this already vulnerable, yet incredibly resilient population, let's put this level of effort to eradicating obesity. There's your decrease in disability claims: help obese people get to a healthy weight range. Give them the tools to do so. Give them the support to do so. What if, instead of paying out a small pittance of disability living allowance throughout their lifetime, there is a focused effort on health education, support programs, assistance with making healthy choices, FREE EXERCISE? 

Crazy, I know, but it would work. Free Herbalife shakes for all.