LETTER TO EDITOR: The case for British health care

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Your editorial ("The Brits' bad example," Opinion, Aug. 7) and other commentary ("Going British is bad for your health," Letters, Tuesday) paint a distorted and caricatured picture of Britain's health system.

It is not for a Brit to say what kind of health care system the United States should have. That's a matter rightly being debated by Americans across the country. And as they debate, your readers might like to know why the National Health Service remains so popular in Britain.

The NHS provides a high and rising standard of health care to all Britons, on an equal basis, at less than half the per-capita cost of the U.S. system. Surveys have shown that the NHS is thought of as good or excellent by the vast majority of those who use it. Two years ago, a U.S. research group, the Commonwealth Fund, ranked British health care the best of six large countries studied, based on patient and physician surveys.

Medical treatment provided by our NHS is delivered on the basis of clinical need, not age. There is no ban on anyone of any age receiving any treatment. And it is untrue that bureaucrats make decisions on medical issues.

The question of whether to prescribe certain drugs or recommend surgery in each case is rightly a decision for doctors and medical professionals, decided on a case-by-case basis in discussion with the patient and his or her family, looking at all the available evidence.

British health outcomes are not to be sneezed at, either. Average life expectancy in Britain is 79.2 years (78 years for the U.S.), according to the World Health Organization.

DOMINICK CHILCOTT

Deputy head of mission

British Embassy to the United States

Washington