Brits Hit Back at US President's Rebuke of UK's 'Best in World' Healthcare System

TEHRAN (defapress)- UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Health Minister Jeremy Hunt and other Britons reacted fiercely to US President Donald Trump's tweet criticizing Britain's publicly funded healthcare system as "going broke and not working."

News ID: 68515

Date: 06 February 2018 - 14:35

Trump made a stab at Britain's National Health Service (NHS) 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, Sputnik reporetd.

It didn't take long for ardent Britons to respond to the criticism. 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 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," PM's Spokesman said.

Even Hunt, one of the main targets of the protesters' anger, replied on Trump's tweet.

"I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover. NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage - where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance," Hunt wrote on Tweeter.

Britain spends 9.1 percent of its GDP on healthcare, compared to 17.1 percent in the United States, according to the World Bank.

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.