Chris Pope

American Healthcare and the NHS

Donald Trump recently disparaged Britain’s National Health Service for “going broke and not working,” leading Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to express his pride in a system “where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.” But the news has been filled for months with stories of people unable to access care they need under the NHS, regardless of their efforts or financial resources. Beyond the nationalistic pride and defensiveness of politicians both sides of the Atlantic, how do British and American healthcare really compare? Are both sides as crazy as the other imagines, or do they each know something the other can learn from?

Sweeping generalizations regarding the nature of American health insurance are so popular because the reality is so complicated. It would only be misleading to say that the country has 50 entirely different healthcare systems (one for every state) because that would be an understatement.

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