As it copes with minimal funding increases and cuts to social care, England’s National Health Service (NHS) has been struggling to meet patient demand during one of the most severe flu seasons of recent years. Some have argued that Britons’ frustration with the situation reflects dissatisfaction with their universal health care system. But as the Commonwealth Fund’s David Blumenthal, M.D., and the Health Foundation’s Jennifer Dixon write in STAT, the NHS remains highly popular and ranks high among wealthy nations on measures of health care access and quality.
Blumenthal and Dixon say that “the U.S. can learn from the National Health Service — and other health systems — about paths forward and paths to avoid as it designs a uniquely American approach to its immense health care problems.”