Ecuador’s election wasn’t free — and its people will pay the price under President Noboa
Almost four decades of failed neoliberal ‘reform’ in the NHS have shown the strength of Bevan’s original model
As we celebrate the 70th birthday of our NHS, we should commit ourselves to fighting for the founding principle of the health service – free at the point of use, says JOHN LISTER

EVERYDAY life in the US: a baby falls and hits his head. The family take him to the emergency room. The staff say he is fine, allow him a nap, feed him some formula milk and send him home: bill $18,000.
An angry insured person tweets giant insurance corporation Cigna to ask why they had declined authorisation for an operation requested by her neurosurgeon.
Investigative journalists reveal colossal payments by pharmaceutical companies to influence prescribing habits of doctors, with $9.15 billion paid to 905,000 doctors and 1,216 teaching hospitals over three years.
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Behind Starmer’s headline-grabbing abolition of NHS England lies a ruthless drive to centralise control so that cuts of £6.6 billion can be made — even if it means reducing cancer services and clinical staff, writes JOHN LISTER

Relatively recently the health service was at its peak — to reverse the incredible damage done by the Tories since 2010 we need billions going straight into state provision, writes JOHN LISTER

Labour’s 24-page manifesto for the health service carefully avoids explaining how any of it will be paid for and provided. This is more than worrying, writes JOHN LISTER

Higher funds are critical to prevent the growth of privatisation by allowing the NHS to expand capacity and reduce the vast 6-million-plus waiting list, writes JOHN LISTER