boris

While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovers from a life-threatening bout of COVID-19 that hospitalized him for a week, including three nights in an intensive care unit, he won’t have to worry about medical bills. He will be able to resume leading his country through the greatest crisis it has faced since World War II without that worry for one simple reason, and it’s not that he’s a high-ranking, powerful government official. It’s that he lives in the U.K. A publicly funded single-payer system The U.K.‘s National Health Service, which provides all types of health care – including pharmacies and primary doctors, dental and mental health care, sexual health services, ambulances and hospitals – does not charge for most services. There are modest fees for dental and vision care, as we...

Boris Johnson – who was admitted to intensive care on April 6 with worsening symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus – is not the first British prime minister to experience a life-threatening bout of ill health. Winston Churchill suffered a mild heart attack in 1941 and a much more serious stroke in 1953. In both cases, he successfully kept his illnesses secret from Parliament, the press and the public. Prime ministers have even died in office, although the last to do so was Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, in 1865. In response, the Liberal Party simply selected Lord John Russell, Earl Russell, to succeed Palmerston. Unlike Churchill and the unfortunate Palmerston, Johnson has fallen ill in an era of social media and 24-hour news. In the U.S., the 25th A...

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Why Boris Johnson won’t have to pay any hospital bills

With Boris Johnson in intensive care, who runs the UK?