For example:
"Sylvia de Vires....afflicted with a 13-inch, fluid-filled tumor weighing 40 pounds, was unable to get timely care."
And she's far from the only one:
"At some hospitals, seriously ill patients are kept in ambulances for hours so as not to run afoul of the regulation."
Wow, sure sounds like we need to switch to a Canadian-style, nationalized health care system, and right away!
Or maybe not: "the chairman" cited above is actually considered the "the father of Quebec medicare," the system on which Canadian health care is based. And he made those remarks recently, adding "(w)e thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," and proposing a much greater role for private health care for our Neighbors to the North©. In fact, he's "proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."
And poor Mrs de Vires? Well, she's from Ontario, and because the Canadian system wouldn't approve treatment for her, she took a little trip down to Michigan. There, a surgeon successfully removed her tumor, and none too soon: the surgeon estimated that "she could not have lived longer than a few weeks more."
And you may be wondering about the folks being "stored" in ambulances. In Britain, it has become commonplace for acute care patients to have long waits before being seen, much less treated. So the Ministry of Health promulgated a new rule requiring that those in need of emergency care receive it inside four hours. All well and good in theory, but the Law of Unintended Consequences trumps a mere gummint regulation, and so hospitals refused to allow the patients inside; that four hour meter didn't start ticking until they hit the actual door.
I'll give "the father of Quebec medicare" the last word on this:
"We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."
[Hat Tip: RWN]
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