09-01-2016, 10:16 PM
*** 2-Sep-16 World View -- UK's 'junior doctors' call a devastating 5-day strike against the National Health Service
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** UK's National Health Service continues to slash services to survive
****
![[Image: g160901b.jpg]](http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g160901b.jpg)
Protester against cuts to UK's National Health Service (Daily Mail)
As we reported a year ago, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is
facing an existential crisis, with a huge and accelerating deficit
expected to reach 22 billion pounds ($32 billion) by 2020. ( "5-Aug-15 World View -- Britain's National Health Service (NHS) faces existential financial crisis"
)
The system is deeply corrupt, with doctors falsifying records,
claiming for work that was never done, or putting in for bogus
overtime. Dentistry services are so bad that people are buying
"do-it-yourself (DIY) dentistry kits" to take care of their whole
families, as was done centuries ago.
Because the NHS bureaucracy is so old and bloated, and because the
services are "free," costs can only be controlled by rationing,
queuing, reduced quality and artificial cost suppression. UK's
doctors earn far less than doctors in other countries, and UK
specialists earn about half of what they do in America. As a result,
UK's homegrown doctors have left to work in other countries, and NHS
has had to import 28% of its doctors from abroad, usually from poorer
countries where low UK salaries look attractive.
General practitioner (GP) appointments are limited to 10 minutes,
requiring some doctors see up the 60 patients in a 10-hour day. And
yet, NHS commissioners are planning to cut GPs by 1/3 in the next ten
years, and cut GP appointments by 24%. GPs will be replaced with
cheaper, easier-to-train physician associates, nurses and pharmacists.
At the same time, population is rising and aging, as new people are
born and old people are getting older. In East London, for example,
where population is rising rapidly, the plan is to cut 136 GPs by
2020, and replace them with 58 more pharmacists, 25 more physician
associates, and 49 more nurses. That is, 136 high-cost doctors will
be replaced by 132 much cheaper people. In addition, a number of
hospitals are slated for closure.
Many analysts believe that NHS commissioners are either in denial
about trying to save NHS, or a lying to the public. According to
Helen McKenna, a senior policy adviser:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Politicians need to be honest with the public about
> what the NHS can offer with the funding allocated to it.
>
> It is no longer credible to argue that the NHS can continue to
> meet increasing demand for services, deliver current standards of
> care and stay within its budget. This is widely understood within
> the NHS and now needs to be debated with the public.
>
> There are no easy choices, but it would be disastrous to adopt a
> mindset that fails to acknowledge the serious state of the NHS in
> England today."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
In other words, UK's National Health Service is in a death spiral, and
no one wants to say so. Chronicle Live (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) and Guardian (London) and BBC (11-Jul) and
GP Online (UK)
****
**** UK's 'junior doctors' call a devastating 5-day strike against the National Health Service
****
The British Medical Association (BMA), the labor union representing
doctors in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), will stage an
England-wide 5-day strike for the week of September 12-16.
The walkout will be devastating for patients. About 100,000
operations and one million hospital appointments will be postponed.
One patient, Simon Emmet, quoted by the BBC has a kidney stone
and is waiting for surgery. The surgery was scheduled for four
weeks (it would have been less than one week in the US),
but with the strike, he expects it to be delayed.
> [indent]<QUOTE>"I can't see that the strikes won't delay my
> surgery. There are only two people at the hospital that can carry
> it out, meaning I already have a four-week waiting time.
>
> I've been to A&E [emergency room] with abdominal pain twice in the
> last week. I constantly feel nauseous and I'm in constant pain. I
> have to take very strong painkillers which make me drowsy.
>
> I work from home as an IT consultant and I have to balance taking
> enough painkillers so I can work through the pain but no so many
> that I'm too dopey to work. Often I end each day in so much pain
> that I just lie on the floor waiting for the next day's work.
>
> I'd really like to believe the doctors have the patient's best
> interest at heart but it doesn't seem right. They've been arguing
> about this for three years."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
This patient is covered by free medical insurance, but can only
go to one hospital with two doctors. In America, you have to
pay for medical insurance, but the patient can go to any number
of private clinics and get it done quickly.
The labor dispute is centered on overtime work on evenings and
weekends, which is usually assigned to the "junior doctors." Since
the NHS is facing economic disaster, there was no money available for
large increases in pay that the BMA demanded. So, the government
offered a contract that would pay more to doctors that do a lot of
work on weekends, and would pay less to other doctors.
The BMA recommended that its membership accept the revised contract,
but the membership rejected it in July by a vote of 58% to 42%.
The BMA announced on Wednesday that junior doctors will strike from
September 12-16. The BMA is scheduling additional walkouts for
October 5-7 and 10-11, November 14-18, and December 5-9.
WebMD (UK) and BBC and Guardian (London)
****
**** Obamacare in severe death spiral, as insurers bleed billions
****
I saw Mark Bertolini, the CEO of health insurer Aetna, on television
numerous times in the last few years. He always expressed concerns
about Obamacare, but repeatedly said that he was going to make it
work, and he expected Aetna's Obamacare insurance to break even in
2016, or in 2017 at the latest. As late as spring of this year, he
announced plans for Aetna to expand Obamacare coverage of 2017.
On August 15, Aetna announced major cutbacks in Obamacare coverage. I
saw Bertolini on CNBC that morning, and he was asked why things had
changed since the spring. He said, "Losing $200 million in the second
quarter really focuses my mind."
Aetna announced it will exit 11 of the 15 health-insurance exchanges
where it sells Obamacare plans. Other companies, including
UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Texas’ Scott and White
Health Plan, have all announced similar massive losses, and have all
made similar announcements.
In 2016, half the states saw premiums on Obamacare plans increase by
30% or more. The premiums in 2017 are beginning to rise even faster,
at 44% or more.
Even worse, Pinal County in Arizona will have absolutely no Obamacare
plans to purchase. That means that 10,000 families in that country
will lose their health insurance at the end of 2016, with nowhere else
to go. The average proposed premium rate increase among all insurers
for 2017 plans in Arizona tops 65%.
Let's review how we got here.
As long time readers are well aware, in July, 2009, when Obamacare was
first announced, I wrote that Obama's health plan is a proposal of economic insanity.
I compared it to
President Richard Nixon's wage-price controls, and I predicted that it
would just as much an economic disaster as Nixon's price controls.
Nixon's price controls were the typical plan that loony left loves --
use government regulations to keep prices low, at a time when
inflation was at 4%. It's a great idea, and one that "progressive"
and left-wing politicians absolutely adore, because they're low IQ's
and limited mental capacities make them incapable of understanding
that giving things away for free only creates economic disaster, as it
always has in history. Nixon was forced to repeal the price
controls because there were huge shortages of many things, and
inflation was skyrocketing to 12%.
We've recently been seeing the same thing happen in Venezuela, in a
more extreme form. Citizens have to queue for hours to get basics
like milk, rice, flour, ketchup, diapers, and toilet paper. Crime and
violence are becoming rampant. 75% of Venezuelan homes now live in
poverty, compared to 27% just two years ago. The inflation rate was
275% in 2015, and still surging. The government has ordered the
jailing of factory owners if their factories cannot produce products
as ordered.
So now the same thing is happening with Obamacare. President Obama
has been able to stall for years by stealing billions of dollars in
funds meant for other purposes. We haven't yet seen President Obama
order the jailing of insurance company CEOs for withdrawing from
Obamacare. But this is an administration that earlier this year
threatened to use RICO racketeering laws to prosecute organizations,
corporations, and individual scientists who are climate change
deniers. As Obamacare spirals into disaster, anything is possible.
And as always at times like this, I like to remind readers that
Obamacare's principal architect, MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, said
that Obamacare passed because of "the stupidity of the American
voter." Gruber was talking about Obamacare supporters. Time and
Business Wire - Aetna (15-August) and Fox News and Daily Signal (8-Aug)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, United Kingdom, National Health Service, NHS,
Helen McKenna, British Medical Association, BMA, Simon Emmet,
Obamacare, Aetna, Mark Bertolini, UnitedHealthcare, Humana,
Richard Nixon, Nixon's Wage-Price Controls, Venezuela,
Jonathan Gruber
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- UK's National Health Service continues to slash services to survive
- UK's 'junior doctors' call a devastating 5-day strike against the National Health Service
- Obamacare in severe death spiral, as insurers bleed billions
****
**** UK's National Health Service continues to slash services to survive
****
Protester against cuts to UK's National Health Service (Daily Mail)
As we reported a year ago, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is
facing an existential crisis, with a huge and accelerating deficit
expected to reach 22 billion pounds ($32 billion) by 2020. ( "5-Aug-15 World View -- Britain's National Health Service (NHS) faces existential financial crisis"
)
The system is deeply corrupt, with doctors falsifying records,
claiming for work that was never done, or putting in for bogus
overtime. Dentistry services are so bad that people are buying
"do-it-yourself (DIY) dentistry kits" to take care of their whole
families, as was done centuries ago.
Because the NHS bureaucracy is so old and bloated, and because the
services are "free," costs can only be controlled by rationing,
queuing, reduced quality and artificial cost suppression. UK's
doctors earn far less than doctors in other countries, and UK
specialists earn about half of what they do in America. As a result,
UK's homegrown doctors have left to work in other countries, and NHS
has had to import 28% of its doctors from abroad, usually from poorer
countries where low UK salaries look attractive.
General practitioner (GP) appointments are limited to 10 minutes,
requiring some doctors see up the 60 patients in a 10-hour day. And
yet, NHS commissioners are planning to cut GPs by 1/3 in the next ten
years, and cut GP appointments by 24%. GPs will be replaced with
cheaper, easier-to-train physician associates, nurses and pharmacists.
At the same time, population is rising and aging, as new people are
born and old people are getting older. In East London, for example,
where population is rising rapidly, the plan is to cut 136 GPs by
2020, and replace them with 58 more pharmacists, 25 more physician
associates, and 49 more nurses. That is, 136 high-cost doctors will
be replaced by 132 much cheaper people. In addition, a number of
hospitals are slated for closure.
Many analysts believe that NHS commissioners are either in denial
about trying to save NHS, or a lying to the public. According to
Helen McKenna, a senior policy adviser:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"Politicians need to be honest with the public about
> what the NHS can offer with the funding allocated to it.
>
> It is no longer credible to argue that the NHS can continue to
> meet increasing demand for services, deliver current standards of
> care and stay within its budget. This is widely understood within
> the NHS and now needs to be debated with the public.
>
> There are no easy choices, but it would be disastrous to adopt a
> mindset that fails to acknowledge the serious state of the NHS in
> England today."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
In other words, UK's National Health Service is in a death spiral, and
no one wants to say so. Chronicle Live (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) and Guardian (London) and BBC (11-Jul) and
GP Online (UK)
****
**** UK's 'junior doctors' call a devastating 5-day strike against the National Health Service
****
The British Medical Association (BMA), the labor union representing
doctors in the UK's National Health Service (NHS), will stage an
England-wide 5-day strike for the week of September 12-16.
The walkout will be devastating for patients. About 100,000
operations and one million hospital appointments will be postponed.
One patient, Simon Emmet, quoted by the BBC has a kidney stone
and is waiting for surgery. The surgery was scheduled for four
weeks (it would have been less than one week in the US),
but with the strike, he expects it to be delayed.
> [indent]<QUOTE>"I can't see that the strikes won't delay my
> surgery. There are only two people at the hospital that can carry
> it out, meaning I already have a four-week waiting time.
>
> I've been to A&E [emergency room] with abdominal pain twice in the
> last week. I constantly feel nauseous and I'm in constant pain. I
> have to take very strong painkillers which make me drowsy.
>
> I work from home as an IT consultant and I have to balance taking
> enough painkillers so I can work through the pain but no so many
> that I'm too dopey to work. Often I end each day in so much pain
> that I just lie on the floor waiting for the next day's work.
>
> I'd really like to believe the doctors have the patient's best
> interest at heart but it doesn't seem right. They've been arguing
> about this for three years."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
This patient is covered by free medical insurance, but can only
go to one hospital with two doctors. In America, you have to
pay for medical insurance, but the patient can go to any number
of private clinics and get it done quickly.
The labor dispute is centered on overtime work on evenings and
weekends, which is usually assigned to the "junior doctors." Since
the NHS is facing economic disaster, there was no money available for
large increases in pay that the BMA demanded. So, the government
offered a contract that would pay more to doctors that do a lot of
work on weekends, and would pay less to other doctors.
The BMA recommended that its membership accept the revised contract,
but the membership rejected it in July by a vote of 58% to 42%.
The BMA announced on Wednesday that junior doctors will strike from
September 12-16. The BMA is scheduling additional walkouts for
October 5-7 and 10-11, November 14-18, and December 5-9.
WebMD (UK) and BBC and Guardian (London)
****
**** Obamacare in severe death spiral, as insurers bleed billions
****
I saw Mark Bertolini, the CEO of health insurer Aetna, on television
numerous times in the last few years. He always expressed concerns
about Obamacare, but repeatedly said that he was going to make it
work, and he expected Aetna's Obamacare insurance to break even in
2016, or in 2017 at the latest. As late as spring of this year, he
announced plans for Aetna to expand Obamacare coverage of 2017.
On August 15, Aetna announced major cutbacks in Obamacare coverage. I
saw Bertolini on CNBC that morning, and he was asked why things had
changed since the spring. He said, "Losing $200 million in the second
quarter really focuses my mind."
Aetna announced it will exit 11 of the 15 health-insurance exchanges
where it sells Obamacare plans. Other companies, including
UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Texas’ Scott and White
Health Plan, have all announced similar massive losses, and have all
made similar announcements.
In 2016, half the states saw premiums on Obamacare plans increase by
30% or more. The premiums in 2017 are beginning to rise even faster,
at 44% or more.
Even worse, Pinal County in Arizona will have absolutely no Obamacare
plans to purchase. That means that 10,000 families in that country
will lose their health insurance at the end of 2016, with nowhere else
to go. The average proposed premium rate increase among all insurers
for 2017 plans in Arizona tops 65%.
Let's review how we got here.
As long time readers are well aware, in July, 2009, when Obamacare was
first announced, I wrote that Obama's health plan is a proposal of economic insanity.
I compared it to
President Richard Nixon's wage-price controls, and I predicted that it
would just as much an economic disaster as Nixon's price controls.
Nixon's price controls were the typical plan that loony left loves --
use government regulations to keep prices low, at a time when
inflation was at 4%. It's a great idea, and one that "progressive"
and left-wing politicians absolutely adore, because they're low IQ's
and limited mental capacities make them incapable of understanding
that giving things away for free only creates economic disaster, as it
always has in history. Nixon was forced to repeal the price
controls because there were huge shortages of many things, and
inflation was skyrocketing to 12%.
We've recently been seeing the same thing happen in Venezuela, in a
more extreme form. Citizens have to queue for hours to get basics
like milk, rice, flour, ketchup, diapers, and toilet paper. Crime and
violence are becoming rampant. 75% of Venezuelan homes now live in
poverty, compared to 27% just two years ago. The inflation rate was
275% in 2015, and still surging. The government has ordered the
jailing of factory owners if their factories cannot produce products
as ordered.
So now the same thing is happening with Obamacare. President Obama
has been able to stall for years by stealing billions of dollars in
funds meant for other purposes. We haven't yet seen President Obama
order the jailing of insurance company CEOs for withdrawing from
Obamacare. But this is an administration that earlier this year
threatened to use RICO racketeering laws to prosecute organizations,
corporations, and individual scientists who are climate change
deniers. As Obamacare spirals into disaster, anything is possible.
And as always at times like this, I like to remind readers that
Obamacare's principal architect, MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, said
that Obamacare passed because of "the stupidity of the American
voter." Gruber was talking about Obamacare supporters. Time and
Business Wire - Aetna (15-August) and Fox News and Daily Signal (8-Aug)
Related Articles
- Venezuela economy close to collapse as Maduro orders jailing of factory owners (15-May-2016)
- Healthcare.gov -- The greatest software development disaster in history (23-Aug-2015)
- Obamacare: 500M lines of code, $500M, only 60% completed (1-Dec-2013)
- History of President Richard Nixon's Wage-Price Controls (5-Jul-13)
- Obama's health plan, a proposal of economic insanity (25-July-2009)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, United Kingdom, National Health Service, NHS,
Helen McKenna, British Medical Association, BMA, Simon Emmet,
Obamacare, Aetna, Mark Bertolini, UnitedHealthcare, Humana,
Richard Nixon, Nixon's Wage-Price Controls, Venezuela,
Jonathan Gruber
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
