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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Rhian Lubin

Revealed: Horrifying cost of drug and hospital operations in a post-Brexit US pact

If there is one thing most Britons agree on it is the beloved NHS.

Free at the point of delivery healthcare for all.

It is the antithesis of America where citizens rely on insurance or end up in mountains of debt for something as simple as giving birth or even getting basic medication.

Leaving the EU without a deal would make the UK heavily reliant on a trade agreement with the US.

Campaigners say this desperation would put us in such a weak position we would have to make major concessions.

And the NHS, which spends £140billion annually, is the prize the US companies want.

A shows how extreme the price differences are between the UK and US.

Nasal allergy tablets Nasonex which cost £7.68 in the UK instead cost an eye-watering £224 to US patients.

Diazepam, used to treat anxiety, relaxation and muscle spasms, costs as little as 2p per tablet for the NHS.

American hospitals bill patients £3.05 a tablet. That's a price rise of 15,200%.

Viagra, £4 in the UK per tablet, is £61 in the US.

Drugs which are cheap in the UK can cost an eye-watering amount in the US (stock photo) (PA)

And Daraprim, used for HIV, cancer and malaria patients is £2.30 in the UK.

It costs £619 per tablet in the United States.

It's a similar story with operations like hip replacements, which cost the NHS £7,313 but in America patients can be billed up to £37,000.

On his state visit in June, Donald Trump said the NHS was “on the table” in US-UK negotiations, but he later rowed back on the comment after public uproar.

Prices for everything - even EpiPens - could go up (stock photo) (King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust)

Dr Tony O’Sullivan, co-chair of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said: “The verbal assurances from Johnson that the NHS won’t be in trade deals are nothing more than hot air.

“We’ve had false assurances that the Government isn’t privatising the NHS when it is already.

“A trade deal with the US would be the death knell of the NHS and would nail down the market in the NHS for ever.

“We demand total assurance the legislation will be changed and we will re-nationalise the NHS.”

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