The NHS is right for us, but isn’t an option for America

We all enjoy incredibly good healthcare, free at the point of use. This experience makes the fact that almost nobody is advocating an American NHS seem quite extraordinary.

Yet there are good reasons why Obama shouldn’t consider a national health service. Unlike us, the US does not have a pre-existing state healthcare infrastructure. To build or buy one now would be incredibly expensive and make the deficit sky-rocket far further. It is one thing for us to maintain and improve our NHS, but it’s another thing entirely to set one up from scratch in a country of 300 million people.

Furthermore, Obama simply does not have the political capital to push through anything more than reform of the existing system. The public is sceptical about him and worried about the deficit. Even his rather modest plan now looks difficult to realise.

So while it may seem ridiculous that the Americans don’t seem to want what we’ve got, there are very clear reasons why Obama isn’t advocating an NHS.