‘Amazing grace’
An encounter with Great Britain’s National Health System
By the Rev. Peter StoreyI’ve been following the U.S. debate on health care with a growing sense of bewilderment and despair. Arguments raised by opponents seem to be quite bizarre and out of touch with reality — and utterly anti-poor.
For most of my life, one of my heroes has been Aneurin Bevan, the feisty Labour socialist from the dirt-poor coal-fields of Wales, who was the only member of the House of Commons who could best Winston Churchill in debate. Bevan did so on a number of occasions.
As the Minister of Health in Clement Atlee’s post-World War II Labour Cabinet, Bevan was the architect of Great Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). He fought it through in the face of enormous odds and bitter opposition and disinformation from Churchill’s Tories.
Of course, Bevan might be the wrong example to lift up in a debate in the U.S., the only country where even the trade unionists are capitalists! But I have quoted him many, many times: “Private charity can never be a substitute for organized justice.”
British national pastime
The important thing to note is that 60 years later, not one in 100 Brits would part with the NHS. Criticism, whining and moaning about the NHS are a British national pastime, but they know better than to let anyone tamper with it.
Although I’m from South Africa, I have a personal anecdote to relate about the NHS.
Back in the bad days in South Africa, I had to attend an anti-apartheid conference in White Plains, N.Y. The embargo by the U.S. Congress prevented direct flights from South Africa to the United States. I had to travel via London, where I stopped off for a day.
I had left Johannesburg under enormous stress. While hefting my heavy bag across a London street, I collapsed and lost consciousness.
High-care ward
I came to in an ambulance, and a little later found myself in the high-care ward of a London hospital.
The specialist believed I had suffered a heart attack. I was to remain hooked up to all sorts of monitors while they ran tests. After 24 hours in high care, you can imagine my relief when I was told that the tests were negative.
Whatever had happened to me, it no longer appeared to be a heart attack. I was told that if I passed a stress test, I could go.
Relief gave way to a new anxiety when I began to anticipate what all this was going to cost.
The stress test went well. The doctor smiled and said, “You can go now.”
When I asked where I should go to check out, he shook his head and smiled again. “No,” he said, “you can just go.”
It was my turn to shake my head, arguing that surely I owed them.
“This is National Health,” the doctor said. “You owe nothing.”
I reminded him that I was not a British taxpayer, but a foreigner.
Glad to be of assistance
I was flabbergasted when he replied: “That doesn’t matter at all. We’re glad to have been of assistance. You should get on your way.”
The doctor might as well have made the sign of the cross and said, “Go in peace.” His words were like a benediction. I walked out of that hospital quite overwhelmed with gratitude.
In the taxi to Heathrow I told myself that I had just experienced a gift of sheer grace — amazing grace — all because in the 1950s, the British people had embraced the simple notion that no sick person should be denied treatment because they could not pay.
In Great Britain, health was not a commodity to be bought and sold. It was the right of every citizen. The burden of providing it was shared by all according to their means.
My experience had echoes of the early Church in Acts 2. I believed this simple British notion was one that must make Jesus very happy. It certainly did that for me.
Another thought came to me some hours later when I landed at JFK airport in New York and reported three days late at the anti-apartheid conference: “What if I had collapsed in New York? What if I had woken in the High Care ward of a New York hospital?” The thought of how many years it would have taken me to pay the bill was scary.
There’s a lot to be said for grace.
Reprinted by permission, Faith in Action, United Methodist General Board of Church & Society, August 24, 2009
