Turning them away

The government in England, desperate to try something, anything, to fix their broken "free and guaranteed" health care system (The one that Hillary wants to model our system after, remember), have come up with a novel new proposal to help ease their financial crisis:

"Millions of people with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a Government plan to save billions of pounds from the NHS budget." (Emphasis mine)

Here's how Prime Minister Gordon "Tom Sawyer" Brown managed to spin the situation into a perceived positive result, while astonishingly keeping a straight face:

(The new proposal) "gives all of those with long-term or chronic conditions the choice of greater support, information and advice, allowing them to play a far more active role in managing their own condition". He also "claimed the self-care agenda was about increasing patient choice and 'personalised' services."

Only a career double-talking politician could announce that long-term, chronically ill patients are not going to be able to see a doctor regularly anymore, and call it "an increased patient choice" that's "personalised". Of course the patients are going to be playing a more active role. They're going to be playing the only role, if this comes to pass.

My question is, will the patients' taxes go down proportionally to reflect the fact that they are now their own doctor and nurse, or do they still have to keep fully funding this monstrosity of a Ponzi scheme?

In other related news, we see that an independent think-tank has analyzed the latest figures for England's National Health Service, and the numbers aren't pretty. It seems that the group has determined that the targeted 18-week time limit from a doctor's referral to diagnostic services (CT, MRI, X-ray, etc.) and treatment is impossible.

It's hard to believe, but the organization cites the government's own statistics in justifying its predictions:

"...in October 2007, there were still 30,832 patients waiting longer than 26 weeks for diagnostics, of which 16,551 were waiting over a year." (Emphasis mine)

Still want our government to be in charge of your health care? How would you like limping around in agony for a year or more before the health care system actually gets around to finding out what's wrong with you, let alone starting to treat it?

Here's one more gem of an official government statement that tries to put a positive face on their incompetent performance, this one coming from the Department of Health:

"The Department of Health said: 'We are confident that patients who want it - and for whom it is appropriate - can expect to start their treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from GP referral by the end of 2008. Many will be treated sooner.'"

I have yet to meet the patient who did not want to begin being treated within 5 months for whatever is ailing them, nor have I ever encountered a case where a speedy diagnosis and treatment is not "appropriate". In addition, who besides me believes that the lucky ones who get to be "treated sooner" are the goverment officials, celebrities, and politicians, along with their families?

England has had several decades to perfect its utopian dream of government-run health care, and it is by all accounts a miserable failure. Do we really want to repeat their error?