September 17, 2014
That is what readers of an article headlined “Health Care for Britain in Harsh Light” would likely conclude. The intention of the article certainly seems to be to put the health care system in Britain in a harsh light.
The substance of the article is that the National Health Service (NHS) refused to pay for a young boy suffering from a brain tumor to go overseas to get a new treatment. The treatment is expensive, and according to his doctors and other medical experts, not the best way to treat the tumor.
It is not clear what the obvious flaw is in the NHS. Few people in the United States have insurance that will pay for expensive procedures that are not considered effective. In fact, in many cases insurers won’t pay for expensive procedures even if they are effective.
Okay, so readers should assume that the NYT or one of its editors doesn’t like the NHS. This is really the only information conveyed in this article.
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