18 Aug 2009 Thin Skins Across the Pond

There’s been a bit of a fuss in Britain the last few days. It’s keyed to Americans taking a look at the performance of their government-run health care system, the National Health Service, or NHS, and finding it wanting.

It seems that more than a few Britons are taking this personally, as if our horror at seeing, for example, Britons routinely denied potentially-lifesaving cancer drugs because of their cost is a hostile, anti-Britain sentiment.

Quite the contrary: If we did not like you, we wouldn’t be so horrified.

This debate is more than of passing interest to me because this week the National Center for Public Policy Research will release its newest book, “Shattered Lives: 100 Stories of Government Health Care.”

The chapter on Britain is the longest.

Beginning soon, we’ll be running a story a day from the book in this blog. As we do, I expect I’ll also be editorializing a good bit more about what our friends in Britain have said in defense of their own health system, and their attacks on our own.

In the meantime, I recommend this excellent post on the Classically Liberal blog, which contains several stories from Britain.

E-mail any comments to the National Center for Public Policy Research at [email protected]. | Subscribe to this blog’s feed. | Follow on Twitter.

Labels: Foreign Policy, Government Health Care, Health Care, Retirement, ShatteredLives