the funding of medicine

Wikipedia on ‘socialized medicine’ (read ‘the publicly vs privately funded’ debate). what struck me is that the WHO (world health organisation, not as in ‘the who?’) found that publicly funded medicine works out cheaper, AND leaves the population with better health. Talk about 2 birds with one stone! (statement comes from this source on the WHO website according to wikipedia, I have yet to read it, but intend to peruse it at some point). The more I learn about alternatives to the NHS, the more I appreciate the NHS. I went to a talk on the history of the NHS a few years ago, given by a man who was around when it started. He told all us youngsters that there have been headlines hitting the papers with ‘NHS in crises!’ since it first began. The NHS has always been in ‘crises’, but is still here, 50 years on. He told us not to get overly concerned with those claims. People, with regards to the NHS, have always been screaming ‘the end is nigh’, ‘it’ll all be over in less than 10 years!’… as long as most people realise that it is possibly the best type of healthcare delivery in the world, and sincerely try to keep it going (because it CAN work, and does work – dare I argue – better than many alternative systems claimed to be its superior), it will have more than 50 years ahead of it. I may be young, naïve and idealistic, but I know the NHS is more than just a good thing. It makes financial sense – even the WHO said so! NB – this is all kind of related to my coursework, so while I am feeling guilty about posting, with unfinished coursework demanding to be worked on to my right, I feel slightly less guilty than if this was totally unrelated to the coursework. Better put my head down.