>March 1,2001 Updated 11:13 AM ET
>
>Report: Nation's health care woefully lacking.
>More on health care
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's health care system is a
> tangled maze that too often leaves Americans with inadequate, outdated,
> even unsafe therapy, according to a scathing report Thursday that
> recommends an urgent overhaul to bring 21st century care to more patients.
> But too many patients slog from doctor to doctor in search of one who
> can even fit a basic physical examination into their crowded schedules,
> much less one who understands and uses the best treatments, says the
> report by the Institute of Medicine.
The USA needs an efficient system like the UK National Health System, which was based on the communistic self help system the miners of south Wales set up with their general practitioners.
These act as brokers for specialist health care.
Although the last Conservative Government tried to convert this into a market with GP's as surrogate consumers, the Labour Government has brought GP's together into Trusts covering say 1/4 million population, with each General Practitioner having a list size of roughly 1,500 to 2,000.
Despite scandals like the GP who turned out to be a serial killer, the system is open to monitoring for quality, accessibility etc. It remains a large island of communism within the capitalist mode of production that prevails (of course) in England.
It is also far more efficient than the health care system in the USA.
Chris Burford
London