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Denial of Care: United Kingdom Case Study

In the United Kingdom’s Health Care System, patients are denied access to medicines that could save their lives.
  • The five-year patient survival rate for breast cancer caught early in England is just 78 percent, compared to 98 percent in the United States. 22
  • Eighty thousand patients with mild Alzheimer’s symptoms have been denied treatment because drugs for the diseases are only approved for those “moderately” affected. 23
  • British citizens wait up to five years for new hearing aids. 24
Not only does patient care suffer, but the United Kingdom’s health services are filled with inequalities.
  • Medicines are available in some parts of the United Kingdom for patients, but not available in other areas and waiting lists for treatment also vary wildly from region to region. 25
  • In fact, some regions in the United Kingdom spend $280 per capita on cancer care, while other regions just spend $90. 26
Patients in the United Kingdom’s health care system are not satisfied and the health care system is wasting money.
  • Between $10 billion and $14 billion of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) budget is lost through waste, fraud and inefficiency. 27
  • Overall, patients are not satisfied with the United Kingdom’s NHS. 28
In fact, a United State’s health care organization, Kaiser Permanente in California, outperforms the United Kingdom’s NHS.
  • A study comparing the costs and performance of the private company California’s Kaiser Permanente and the United Kingdom’s NHS found: 29
    • Kaiser’s performance in key areas, including key preventive practices and access to care, is significantly better.
    • Per capita costs in Kaiser and the NHS are within 10 percent of each other, with Kaiser only costing $187 more than NHS.
    • Kaiser uses only one-third as many hospital days as the NHS.
  • Overall, the study found that Kaiser members experience more comprehensive and convenient primary care services and much more rapid access to specialist services and hospital admissions. 30
  1. 22 “National Health Care Can Kill” by Michael Reagan, Ledger Independent (KY) (April 5, 2007).
  2. 23 Ibid.
  3. 24 “Five-year wait for new hearing aid” Yorkshire Post (September 18, 2007).
  4. 25 “Paying Patients Test British Health Care System” by Sarah Lyall New York Times (February 21, 2008).
  5. 26 Ibid.
  6. 27 “Fraud and Waste Cost NHS £7bn a Year,” by Rosie Waterhouse and David Cracknell, Sunday Times (December 2, 2001).
  7. 28 “Public’s satisfaction with the NHS declines,” by Annabel Ferriman, British Medical Journal, (December 16, 2000).
  8. 29 “Getting More for Their Dollar: a Comparison of the NHS with California’s Kaiser Permanente,” Richard G. A. Feachem, Neelam K. Sekhri, Karen L. White, British Medical Journal (January 19, 2001).
  9. 30 Ibid.