LONDON – The name of Tony Benn is synonymous with socialist politics. One of the oldest politicians in Great Britain as he fiercely defended the country from national health service time and again, and was in power in 1948 when the health minister Nye Bevan introduced the system.

In the debate between public and private health care, who wins and why?

Tony Benn: I know in detail the British system and I know that the American system, which is that they do not have a system. Forty-seven million people in America have no health insurance and Great Britain, everyone is covered. That’s the difference. For people in the United States is a very frightening thing to fall ill. I think our system is good. If I am an American who tries to introduce in Congress would have to start by accepting that it reached its goal is to take the anguish of the disease. This is what the [NHS introductory document] The Government stated in 1948, it should anxiety of ill health.

What do you make of Obama’s proposals for health care reform?

I think the health of the nation is of national interest. If people are ill in a country then everyone is affected. In America they accept that education is of the national interest and they have tax payers funding education. They don’t call it socialized education, but it is. They have socialized police, who are paid for by the tax payer, fire brigades, and so on, and it seems to me that that’s the way you should respond to the needs of a nation. And that’s the principle on which I’ve used the health service from the very beginning

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