May 05, 2003

Euro would mean end of free NHS - European Central Bank

BRITAIN will be forced to scrap the National Health Service if it joins the euro, Gordon Brown was told yesterday.

The European Central Bank, which manages the single currency, gave warning that free health care would have to be restricted to emergency services only, otherwise the cost would overwhelm European economies and lead to soaring inflation. Britain has one of the biggest tax-funded health services in the EU, with only a tiny proportion of treatments paid for privately.

The report, in the Frankfurt-based ECB’s monthly bulletin, said that Britain’s ageing population would make state pensions, tax-funded health services and long-term care unaffordable in the future.

These EUroweenies get more outrageous by the day!
To point out Britain's "ageing" population--which is news to me--as if France and Germany didn't have bigger problems with this demographic than their friends across the Channel!
If this doesn't kill the drive for the EUro in Great Britain, I don't know what will! (except for their love of national sovereignity, history and tradition).