Thursday, December 20, 2007

Don't fly, do fly?

That's right I'm back and it's not a repeat! Oh dear, things must be bad when I don't post for a day and then come back and open with a line from the Lenny Henry Show. Anyways, this morning's first and very bried post is a repeat really because it uses the Independent as a source. The front page of the Indy is all about the proposed common health market across the EU. As a market nut I cannot complain about such things really. Why shouldn't I be able to use my tax money here to pay for treatment elsewhere?

The line that lefty MPs have taken saying this will increae inequality because only the rich and savvy will do it is flawed on so many levels. First up by acknowledging that fact they concede that the NHS is not good enough. Second if someone takes less money for an operation abroad they are leaving more money in the NHS and relieving capacity for those that cannot go abroad. In fact such a scheme would probably improve the NHS not just because it would have to face real competition but because it would start to relieve it's creaking doors.

However I digress. The real reason for this post is to point out the absurd contradiction of this EU policy with it's stated environmental emission targets. On the one hand they want people to travel by air less and then on the other they want to open up the health market whioch, by definition will increase travel by air, train and car. For mew at least this policy brings into focus the fact that environmental policies are driven far more by politics than the so-called 'scientific consensus'

2 comments:

Alex said...

The argument that it is only the rich who would benefit from the EU health service changes is clearly wrong. The UK may be an island, but there are plenty of people living on mainland Europe within commuting distance of another country. It makes sense for them to be able to use health services in the neighbouring country if that is what they need to do (provided that they don't need UK NHS-style IT systems to make it work).

Anonymous said...

It's a question of relative scale. The numbers of health treatment air travellers will be minute compared with the number of tourists.