Brits Hit Back at Trump’s Rebuke of UK’s ‘Best in the World’ Healthcare System
PM Theresa May, health minister Jeremy Hunt and other Britons reacted fiercely to Trump’s tweet criticising Britain’s publicly funded healthcare system as “going broke and not working.”
President Trump made a stab at Britain’s National Health Service on Monday, tweeting that Britons were marching in the streets because their universal health-care system was dysfunctional and unrpofitable and decided not to borrow it as US Democrats were suggesting.
It didn’t take long for ardent Britons to respond to the criticisn. Twitter users flooded to defend the NHS, pointing out that the march Trump referred to was organized by groups which want to increase the health service’s funding, and not decrease it. A quick response from Theresa May showed her strong position on the issue.
“The prime minister is proud of having an NHS which is free at the point of delivery. NHS funding is at a record high, and was prioritised in the budget with an extra £2.8bn. In the recent Commonwealth Fund international survey the NHS was rated the best in the world for a second time.” said PM’s spokesman.
Even Health Secretary Hunt, one of the main targets of the protesters’ anger, replied on Trump’s tweet.
According to the World Bank, Britain spends 9.1 percent of its GDP on healthcare, compared to 17.1 percent in the United States. Despite such reassurance, last month May apologized after the health service postponed tens of thousands of non-emergency operations to free up staff and beds to deal with emergency patients.
