Sticking up for European socialism, Friday night on HBO's Real Time, BBC America's Katty Kay [1] contended the "idea
of demonizing" a "public option" for U.S. health care "as some sort of
step toward socialism - it just seems to me so out of touch with
reality." That's because "in Britain we have a purely public plan and even the Conservative Party calls it one of our great national treasures,"
while other European nations "that have some sort of a public plan
actually, you know what, they seem to like it" since "it seems to
actually work pretty well and no one wants to get rid of it."
The fact Britain's Conservative Party doesn't oppose that nation's
nationalized health system says more about how far the party is to the
left than anything about the benefits of the system.
Kay, BBC's lead Washington correspondent and co-anchor of World News America on BBC America, argued on the June 19 Real Time with Bill Maher [2]:
Germany, Switzerland and France all have a mixture of public and private plans. None of those countries are trying to roll back on a public plan. In Britain we have a purely public plan and even the Conservative Party calls it one of our great national treasures. So the countries that have some sort of a public plan actually, you know what, they seem to like it. It seems to actually work pretty well and no one wants to get rid of it. So, this idea of demonizing this as some sort of step toward socialism - it just seems to me so out of touch with reality.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center