December 11, 2019

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH

The British are hugely supportive of their government-run universal coverage National Health Service (NHS). Think of it as a turbocharged Medicare-for-All, in which even most of the medical providers are directly employed by the government.

A June 5, 2019, CNN article noted that,

The British love their NHS. A survey last year by the leading UK healthcare think tank, the King's Fund, showed that a huge number of Britons still support its founding principles, which command that it should be free at the point of delivery, provide a comprehensive service available to everybody, and be primarily funded through taxation.

"There's this deep-rooted affection for the NHS. It certainly feels that the NHS is almost part of our national psyche," said Dan Wellings, senior fellow at the King's Fund…

”There has been polling done few times over the past few years asking people what makes them proudest to be British and the NHS always tops that poll, above the royal family," Wellings said.

However, this Thursday’s, December 12, general election in the UK poses a perilous threat to the NHS. In current polls, Boris Johnson, the incumbent Conservative Prime Minister is leading Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn. Johnson has been accused of conspiring with the Trump administration to implement a privatization of the NHS. This would be kick-started, if Johnson wins the election, by the exit of the UK from the European Union in January.

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At that point, the US would likely become the UK’s largest trading partner. Although Trump, as usual, has made contradictory statements about the interest of the US in corporatizing the NHS as part of post-Brexit trade talks with Britain, documents recently leaked and cited by Corbyn indicate that the US has already expressed a desire to help US pharmaceutical firms open up the NHS medication market to a free-enterprise approach, as well as firms such as google to be able to collect and analyze data on the NHS medical records of every Britain. This would very possibly be a prelude to US healthcare corporations using the data to create a for-profit replacement of the current NHS structure.

It’s important to understand that this would be a direct betrayal of the British people in terms of how Brexit was marketed to them and passed, although by a thin margin, with a strong working-class base of support..

First, some background to the Brexit campaign that ended in a June 23, 2016, vote.

Politicians Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage (and their big money backers of Brexit) were using fear of immigration in general and an “invasion” by Turkish “hordes” if Turkey entered the EU, in specific, to instill an emotional fear of immigration to realize a pro-Brexit vote. (There are many resonating themes in the pro-Brexit campaign that were employed in the 2016 Trump campaign.) but Dominic Cummings, the guy who ran the brilliant data side (who also first used the Facebook strategy of using individual responsive ads that could only be seen by the user, “dark ads,” a technique that was quickly adopted by the Trump campaign and also likely Russia, which wanted to weaken the European Union by covertly supporting Brexit and, of course, used social media to back Trump) insisted to Johnson and Farage that saving the NHS, and indeed increasing its funding, must be a key part of the “Vote Leave” Campaign.

Johnson and Farage begrudgingly relented, and the data campaign focused on voters who normally don't vote but were concerned that the EU would soon eat away at valued government services, specifically the NHS. (The connection between promising that Brexit would strengthen the NHS by diverting payments to the EU to the NHS — although the figure on the side of the “bus campaign” is wildly exaggerated — became a nationwide “rolling billboard” for Brexit.) Also worth noting is that the slogan Cummings came up with -- "Take Back Control" -- is the right-wing Johnson/Farage forerunner of MAGA.

And a key point that Cummings convinced Johnson and Farage was that undecided voters wanted to “take back control” of was the NHS.

Cummings was less ideological than he was focused on maximizing propaganda to win the Brexit campaign. So, he came up with the idea of pairing the fear of immigrants to potential pro-Brexit voters with the fear of losing funding for the NHS. In short, Brexit won in large part because its proponents scared British voters (particularly in the working class and among the poor) into believing that the NHS would be gutted by the need for subsidizing immigrants.

Now, however, the NHS is becoming a burden to Johnson. It is in need of an influx of funds and recruitment of staff. Instead of expanding funds for the NHS, he is cutting them.

The Guardian has endorsed Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, with a long editorial that characterized Boris Johnson in a manner that eerily resembles Trump:

In his brief time in office Mr Johnson has behaved outrageously. He has lied to the Queen, lied about Brexit and runs scared of serious interrogation. He is a divisive figure with a record of deliberately offensive comments. He bullies institutions such as the BBC and the judiciary for daring to hold him to account. His party’s manifesto dog-whistles with slogans hinting at a hardline approach to immigration. Hate and division have flourished under him. The claim that he can bring Britain together is risible. Mr Johnson promises no end to austerity; spending outside of health will be 14% lower in 2023 than in 2010. A promised tax cut for workers amounts to a saving of 23p a day – as services crumble. On climate his proposals are shamefully inadequate.

The dramatic cynical irony is that Johnson may be presiding over the death of the NHS as a premier example of nationalized healthcare.

A December 10 New York Times article entitled, “UK Health Service Poses a Late Election Issue for Boris Johnson,” notes:

With Britain on the precipice of an election that could soon lead to a decisive break with the European Union, Brexit looks to many people more like a threat to their cherished health service than its salvation. The system has already deteriorated under the watch of Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party, with beds overflowing, waiting times swelling and nurse and doctor vacancies piling up….

The problems vindicated a drumbeat of warnings from the Labour Party that Mr. Johnson was undermining Britons’ health care for Brexit.

Trump, during his recent disastrous trip to the NATO summit in London, claimed he was not backing either Johnson or Corbyn, but few believed his dissembling.

As Axios reported on December 6,

President Trump will be watching another political contest this week: The U.K.'s Dec. 12 general election will decide what happens to Brexit and if Prime Minister Boris Johnson — aka "Britain Trump" — remains in charge.

Why it matters: If Johnson's Conservatives win the majority in Parliament, Brexit clears the way for the bilateral U.S.-U.K. trade relationship that Trump favors over negotiating with the European Union….

The big picture: Among the hurdles between Johnson and a runaway election victory this Thursday are a polarized electorate, his own reputation for dishonesty and Trump.

Johnson is, nonetheless, favored to win enough Conservative parliamentary seats to remain as prime minister. If that proves to be the case, watch for the US corporate medicine and insurance company players to work with a Trump trade delegation to demand that the NHS be carved up to maximize profits for US firms.

Johnson would likely eagerly concede to his political ally, Donald Trump, because he is a Margaret Thatcher kind of guy and also wants to remove as much of the NHS budget from the government budget as possible.

It is notably ironic that as Democratic presidential candidates argue over Medicare-for-All in the US, Trump may soon be involved in dismantling one of its most successful models, the NHS.

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