IT seems the truth hurts.
Mrs Edge doesn't like me pointing out that it is now Conservative policy to destroy the NHS and bring in an altogether different system where people pay to visit the doctor (BEN, April 29).
Mrs Edge is at liberty to disagree with me, but I hope she won't disagree with the facts. The Conservatives have expressly stated that they want to bring in a private insurance system to fund healthcare in this country.
The Tories spent 18 years in power undermining public faith in the NHS by starving our hospitals of investment. Now they want to introduce an insurance-based scheme where people have to pay to access medical treatment.
The simple fact is that the NHS, which is funded through general taxes, is the best way of providing health treatment for the whole population.
America doesn't have an equivalent of the NHS, and 40 million Americans have no health insurance, resulting in people going without vital treatment unless they can pay up front. That is exactly the type of system the Tories are telling us we should have in this country.
Under Iain Duncan-Smith, the Tories are desperately trying to shed their heartless, uncaring image.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the NHS, the plain truth of the matter is that the Tories are more extreme than ever.
Kevin Meagher,
Hereford Crescent,
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