Republican candidate, Scott Brown, has won a shock victory in the ultra-liberal American state ofMassachusetts. He becomes a Member of the 100-strong Senate having defeated the candidate from the Democratic Party. This means that there are now 41 Republican members providing that political party with more options for delaying Democratic legislation. The election result comes just one year after Barack Obama’s inauguration as President.
Events such as these are timely reminders to politicians of electors’ readiness to exercise their right to judge them. Critically this result could compromise the ability of Barack Obama to bring in health care reform. He campaigned on a position that was broadly to make health insurance available to more people compared to the Republican position which was to make health insurance more affordable for those people choosing it.
For as long as I can remember, American election campaigns have had healthcare reform at their centre which implies that reforms even approaching the British system never see the light of day. Similarly a debate inBritainabout extending the role of private insurance to anything like the American model would simply not fly.
Both healthcare systems can have some scary outcomes. In theUnited States, it is estimated that some 15% of the people, 45 million Americans, have no health insurance cover. Individual healthcare spending is reckoned to be a major source of personal debt. There are also many hidden costs associated with inadequate health care provision.
In Britain, we are proud to have our NHS and it is a remarkable public health care achievement, asserting the basic right to this provision for all people. This right is not guaranteed in other parts of the world and we should be pleased to have pioneered it here. Yet we can have our difficulties as well. At times, the NHS has been the largest employer inWestern Europebut despite that scale, or because of it, we have not always had the consistent delivery of care that we would wish to see.
We can all work to improve and support our NHS and it remains my conviction that this great British institution should be the bedrock of our health care provision. It is for that reason that Crawley Council will be part funding a feasibility study into providing a new Crawley hospital for NHS patients, as part of aBioCitydevelopment. I believe that the need for a newCrawleyhospital is proven and that we in local government have a community leadership responsibility to try and advance this agenda.
Although the media focus has been on a new hospital, the proposedBioCitydevelopment is about much more than this. It would provide assets and facilities to complement health care provision and other economic and social objectives. Part of this would be a science park environment emphasising research and development and the latest technologies. This development would complement the potential of other strategic locations inCrawleysuch as Manor Royal and the proposed university presence.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
20th January 2010