By Mail Foreign Service
Kate Spall claims her comments on the NHS were twisted by campaign group Conservatives for Patients' Rights.
Two British women have claimed they were duped to become the stars of a campaign to sabotage Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.
Furious Kate Spall and Katie Brickell claim that their views on the NHS have been misrepresented by a free market campaign group opposed to Mr Obama's reforms in a bid to discredit the UK system.
Their anger came after a backlash in the UK over the inaccurate portrayal of the NHS by conservatives in America, with David Cameron and Gordon and Sarah Brown joining an online campaign to defend the British system from attack.
As part of an increasingly bitter debate over the merits of healthcare reform, the campaign group Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) aired a series of commercials featuring interviews with patients in both the UK and Canada. CPR 'cherry picked' people that had problems with the health care systems in Canada and the UK and tried to generalize based on the experiences of a small group of individuals.
In the advert focusing on the NHS, it was claimed that people were left on lengthy waiting lists and denied life-saving treatments.
But two of those featured in the campaign have since claimed their words were twisted by the CPR.
Ms Spall and Ms Brickell both agreed to appear in a documentary on healthcare reform.
But neither knew that the footage would be used as part of a TV advertising campaign carried on US networks.
Ms Spall, whose mother died of kidney cancer while waiting for treatment in the UK, told The Times: 'It has been a bit of a nightmare.
'It was a real test of my naivety. I am a very trusting person and for me it has been a big lesson. I feel like I was duped.'
See one of the ads featuring Ms Spall and Ms Brickell here:
Although standing by her views, Ms Spall said she was horrified by how the CPR had used her words.
'What I said is what I believe, and I stand by it, but the context it has been used in is something I was not aware would happen,' she said.
'The irony is that I campaign for exactly the people that socialised healthcare supports. I would not align myself with this group at all.'
Ms Brickell, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer after being refused a smear test because she was too young, said her words had been 'skewed out of proportion' by the CPR. Her cervical cancer is in remission and her latest tests for the disease have been negative.
She told The Times: 'The NHS let me down and I just wanted to make the point that people should not rely solely on it.
... My point was not that the NHS shouldn't exist or that it was a bad thing. I think that our health service is not perfect but to get better it needs more public money, not less. I didn't realise it was having such a political impact.'
Dr Karol Sikora, a British cancer specialist said he had also fallen victim to the same technique.
He told the Guardian: 'They came and saw me in my office about a month ago and I gather I am appearing in some advert. They didn't tell me that would happen.'
See the advert featuring Dr Sikora here:
No one from the CPR was available to comment on the allegations by the people who CPR interviewed.
But speaking yesterday the organisation denied that its commercials were unrepresentative of the UK system.
Brian Burgess, spokesman for the CPR, said: 'These are real people telling real stories. I think the ads are a fair representation of frustration with a government run system.'
She said the documentary would span the U.S., UK and Canada, exploring questions such as 'Who has been failed by socialised medicine and why? What can be done to change things for the better?'
In recent days right wing commentators have gone further by claiming that ailing Senator Edward Kennedy would be left to die under the UK system. This is a huge exaggeration because people in the UK can chose either public or private insurance.
Similar claims were made regarding physicist Stephen Hawking in a newspaper editorial until it was pointed out that the scientist was born and lives in the UK.
Mr Hawking himself defended the health system as he accepted America's highest honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this week, saying: 'I wouldn't be here if not for the NHS'.
The backlash from the UK has also gone online, with people tweeting and blogging messages of support for the NHS.
The £welovetheNHS campaign prompted so many messages that it crashed the Twitter site yesterday.
Among those signing up have been the Prime Minister and his wife.
Among the missives left was one from Downing Street stating: 'PM: NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.'
Mr Brown's wife added her own comment, saying: '£welovetheNHS - more than words can say.'
See the complete article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1206485/We-duped-Two-British-women-tricked-stars-campaign-sabotage-Obamas-healthcare-reforms.html
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