ANALYSIS
THE NHS is mentioned just four times in the 451 pages of official documents brandished by Jeremy Corbyn yesterday to “prove” the Government has been secretly discussing “selling it off” with the US.
Here is what the summaries of discussions actually say.
NHS FUNDING
One reads: “The (US) query about ‘health insurance’ was likely a fishing expedition to check the tone of our response. We do not currently believe the US has a major offensive interest in this space.”
What it means is that US raised the issue of NHS funding through insurance schemes but the British team did not detect any serious aims in this area.
HEALTH INSURANCE US officials asked if their UK counterparts had “concerns” about America’s private health insurance firms but the document says the British officials declined “to go down avenue of talking about specific entities”. It says the US officials were told: “You’ll be aware of certain statements saying we need to protect our needs; this would be something to discuss further down the line.”
What it means is that UK officials declined to discuss giving US health insurance firms access to the UK market.
NURSES
Nurses are able to move freely between the US, Canada and Ireland using the same qualifications and a document says “the US were interested to know if it would be really problematic for the UK to act in this area?”.
What it means is that US officials raised the issue of an agreement allowing nurses to move between countries but were aware that this is sensitive for the UK.
PHARMACEUTICALS UK officials presented an overview of the British pharmaceutical sector “and outlined why the UK patent regime was central to this industry” which has an annual turnover of £48.2billion.
What is means is that the UK, worried that the US is understood to want longerlasting patents which could push up prices, indicated that the current British rules must stay.