A few weeks back, the Washington Times ran a really great piece by its Emeritus Editor Wes Pruden. The article calls attention to facts not present in the current discourse. Facts are funny, we know, in the world of politics. One persons truth is another’s cause to rebel. Our public discourse more closely resembles the world of John Adams and the Porcupine Gazette or William Hearst and Yellow Journalism than it does the staid world of the NYT and WP and WSJ as the papers of record. But, there are facts out there, and, they need to be heard. This piece focuses on one near and dear to us– the comparison between the US and English systems of public health care. We have said many time, and continue to believe that there are lots of things wrong with our current system and there are lots of people who the system fails to do well by. But, we are realists and we understand that a different system is not necessarily better (it could be), but it is most certainly different. That’s England. It is important to appreciate this fact. England is different. There are problems with that system, like we have problems. But, by and large, THAT system has worked well on average for Brits in the same way our has worked well. But, like us, they have dirty laundry and like us, they recognize that there is much wrong there.

The year-end issue of the Economist ran a 5 page summary the kinds of things wrong with that system. Much of these are not of a concern to us. But, both of these articles make the clear point that the English System is very, very different from ours. Those differences will, almost without exception, not be acceptable to Americans. The system is just too different. That there are differences, and that such differences will not fair well if applied here– are the facts that we believe, as Doctors, our patients need to be made aware of.