tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post2566800442218620403..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Boris Johnson and ThatcherismPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-17223058161398496772021-02-07T22:00:32.662+00:002021-02-07T22:00:32.662+00:00«“She wanted compulsory insurance, with the state ...«“She wanted compulsory insurance, with the state paying the premiums for the less well-off”»<br />«<i>This wasn't, of course, the American system until Obamacare was implemented...</i>»<br /><br />I think she intended the "American system" as private insurers selling healthcare insurance plans, mostly to employers for their workers, giving access to "networks" of private health care providers; as a wholesale replacement for the NHS. The central "reform" ideas of reaganism/thatcherisms have always been "vouchers" and "gold/silver/bronze plans".<br /><br />The "mandatory" was indeed not part of the "<i>American system</i>" until Romney. She probably had in mind Medicare and Medicaid as "<i>the state paying the premiums for the less well-off</i>”.<br /><br />Or perhaps in 1988-1990 she was thinking of the "success" of the Pinochet variant of the "<i>American system</i>":<br /><br />https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168851017300660<br />https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2276520/Blissexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-26439959897915954222021-02-07T15:45:24.547+00:002021-02-07T15:45:24.547+00:00She wanted compulsory insurance, with the state pa...<em>She wanted compulsory insurance, with the state paying the premiums for the less well-off</em><br /><br />This wasn't, of course, the American system until Obamacare was implemented...Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-13775959414921955142021-02-07T10:49:56.783+00:002021-02-07T10:49:56.783+00:00Great post, at your best I learn more from you tha...Great post, at your best I learn more from you than ploughing through the entirety of the <i>Graun</i>.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05044822526641597453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-70660366800514927642021-02-07T08:55:43.770+00:002021-02-07T08:55:43.770+00:00The worst outcome of any rushed restructuring of t...The worst outcome of any rushed restructuring of the NHS would be one where new structures - and the associated bureacracy - is established BEFORE the determination of the place and setting of social care in the overall plan.david walshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-15582414222138828372021-02-07T02:04:06.634+00:002021-02-07T02:04:06.634+00:00«After inflicting a strategic defeat on the labour...«<i>After inflicting a strategic defeat on the labour movement by humbling the miners</i>»<br /><br />Scargill had been begging for it, following the delusion that "one last heave" and capitalism would be smashed and the question "who governs Britain" would thereafter be "Supreme Commissar of the People Scargill" :-). The adventurists grossly underestimate the resilience and strength of the establishment.<br /><br />«<i>Thatcher's government implemented marketised schemes right across the public sector in a bid to drive costs down and improve efficiency. With no more evidence than her narrow-minded and thoroughly petit bourgeois view of the world, Thatcher supposed the introduction of competition between organisations delivering services would give value for money for the "taxpayer".</i>»<br /><br />The story told by K Clarke is a bit different:<br /><br />"Kenneth Clarke: I had a lot of views, but they didn't coincide with No 10's", 2014-07-19, "The Observer"<br />«His first challenge at health was heading off Thatcher, who "wanted to go to the American system", he reveals. "I had ferocious rows with her about it. She wanted compulsory insurance, with the state paying the premiums for the less well-off. I thought that was a disaster. The American system is hopeless … dreadful."<br />He prevailed on her to take a different route by introducing more competition into the NHS. It became known – in a phrase he didn't like – as "the internal market". Ever since then, successive governments have pushed in broadly the same direction.Blissexnoreply@blogger.com