Rationing "Free" Health Care

The British are finally starting to acknowledge in the light of day the massive problems their National Health Service (NHS) aka "free health care" has.

From the Scotsman:

"Rationing is reduction in choice. Rationing has become a necessary evil. We need to formalise rationing to prevent an unregulated, widening, postcode-lottery of care. Government no longer has a choice." - ALEX SMALLWOOD, BMA

You also have a situation of medical procedure haves and have-nots...in a "free" health care system where everyone is supposed to be on an equal footing.

Patients have voiced anger that new, but expensive, treatments are denied them on the NHS.

In some cases they are available in Scotland, while patients in England go without.

"It is no longer possible to provide all the latest to absolutely everybody without notable detriment to others," he said.

The National Center for Policy Analysis also points out, referencing a piece in the Wall Street Journal called "Who's Really 'Sicko'" by David Gratzer, that Michael Moore's "Sicko" doesn't hold up too well when compared to reality:

Consider the claim that emergency rooms don't overcrowd in Canada; while people in rural areas may fare better, Toronto patients receive care in four hours on average; one in 10 patients waits more than a dozen hours.

In Britain, the Department of Health recently acknowledged that 1 in 8 patients wait more than a year for surgery.

France's system failed so spectacularly in the summer heat of 2003 that 13,000 people died, largely of dehydration; hospitals stopped answering the phones and ambulance attendants told people to fend for themselves.

The article also says that in Britain, even the Labor Party (the liberal party) is looking to privatize their system. Sweden, Slovakia and Germany are also looking at privatization.

As if we didn't already have enough evidence, we should learn from the mistakes of other countries that have tried socialized medicine...and run as far as possible from it in this country.