The hidden reason the Tories are seeking to make the NHS fail
Quote from the Spectator: "The US economy, for example, is buoyed because two thirds of the country's population depend on their employer for health insurance; the fiercely competitive US workplace, in which workers accept no paid holiday, no parental leave and long hours, is partly a fight for affordable medication and hospital beds."
The recent comment above in a Spectator article about housing lays bare the reason why the Tories are pushing the NHS to fail and forcing us to use private healthcare. Why else would they be facing down our nurses and doctors leading to strikes that have been unthinkable under all previous Governments during its 75 years existence.
The Tories are using strike legislation to emasculate the workforce but a more subtle strategy of seeking to make citizens dependent on private healthcare is a threat to us all. It is designed to make workers too frightened to defend even the basic right to a paid holiday and is another attempt to reward the top 1% at the expense of the rest of the population as they can bully their workforce into lower wages.
The Lib Dems are fighting to save the NHS not only for a fair and world-leading health service but also to maintain the living standards of workers. We believe a well funded NHS is an economic benefit unique to the UK where workers and employers are not required to fund the direct cost of healthcare.
Direct healthcare costs are a disincentive to established businesses creating new jobs. Startup businesses shouldn't be paying health insurance costs in the early years when they need to be reinvesting in business growth and nobody wants to risk being uninsured and seeing their family go untreated.
Funding the NHS through taxation ensures that this is paid when you can most afford it. The Lib Dems have long proposed 1% on income tax ring-fenced for the NHS: this is sound business sense and good value for money.
The Tories' bonfire of workers' rights and destruction of the NHS can now be see in the context of a wider plan. We must all take a stand before it is too late. The Labour Party's recent dalliance with privatisation falls into a Tory trap, but the Lib Dems are now the party defending the ideals that created the NHS.