Four postponements. Institutionalization. Poor nutrition, and despite government-provided dental care, a set of teeth one would be embarrassed to show in public on anything but a nag horse. Oh, and a dead person who maybe shouldn't be dead. Great healthcare system they've got there in Britain.
You just have to love the following typically-libtard-ed quote. I can imagine it being delivered with that famous British stoicism and stiff upper lip:
'We were given the very sad news and as word spread it threw a pall over the civic dinner. Margaret was much loved and respected in this town.'
Yep, don't you just hate it when your Civic Dinners have a pall cast over them? Rather takes away from one's enjoyment of the Stilton and Port.
Now, I'm not saying this woman would have lived had she been given the advantages of the American system, or at least, what's left of it. But you have to wonder why it is that a presumably-vital surgery can be postponed four times, why there is no inquest, and why the family of this poor woman is left to wonder "what if...", or worse, left wondering "Why?" and apparently getting no answers from officialdom.
Could this happen in America? Sure it could. Would it be commonplace, though? Hell no. Why? Because six seconds after this woman expired, ther would be a battalion of lawyers talking lawsuit, a local TV or newspaper reporter looking to make his/her bones on the story, and a grandstanding politician or two to pollute the airwaves with inane nonsense that would still have the effect of at least getting someone in that hospital to take a look at their methods and procedures to ensure that everything was done to the best of everyone's ability.
It's called a 'Free Market', and even though the involvement of a reporter, a politico and an ambulance chaser would, at first blush, seem to have nothing at all to do with whether or not a woman gets an operation, they, in fact, DO. They are part of the auxiliary to the System which keeps healthcare providers honest, and even if they would have failed to keep this particular woman alive, their actions would have had the effect of ensuring better care for those who come after her in similar circumstance. Free Markets are about more than just the transfer of money from one hand to another. Read some Adam Smith and Freidrich Hayek if you don't believe me.
Personally, I hate (in ascending order of repugnance) reporters, politicians and lawyers, but even a study of basic biology will reveal that parasites can often serve a useful function, without even knowing it.
Because the National Health System in Britain is government-run, it cannot be sued when someone fucks up, and requests -- even from bereaved family members -- for information can be problematic if not damned-near impossible endeavors. The System investigates and audits itself, which is to say that the government investigates and audits itself, and so there is little motivation to be honest about costs, results, statistics, goals or conditions. The bureaucrats who run the System have no interest in letting anyone knows how it operates, because if the general public did know the truth, these assholes would have to find other jobs, and let's face it; no one pays as well and expects as little as The Government (any government) does.
This is what's headed your way, whether it's Canada's infamous 10-month waiting list for the Maternity Ward, or Britain's onerous "We've only budgeted for 1,000,000 emergency appendectomies this year. Unfortunately, you're Number 1,000,002, please come back on January 1" standard, or Holland's "Why should we fix your leaky heart valve? You're 84, for Chrissakes! Have you thought about Euthanasia and medical marijuana?" routine.
It sounds like (and I have no evidence to back this up whatsoever) they shuffled this woman from one ward to another over a series of weeks or months, while some nameless, faceless bureaucrats, actuaries and accountants discussed whether or not it was a worthwhile investment to save her life.
So much for being loved and respected in the community.
The sooner ObamaCare is defunded the safer -- and healthier -- we'll all be. We'll at least have the choice about whether we have a surgery or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment