Britain's admitting defeat on socialized medicine - why won't we take notice?

England, home of the execrable National Health Service that our Dear Leader is so set on emulating, has now finally come to the conclusion that a large central health bureaucracy wastes money, shortchanges patients on care and plain just doesn't work, and therefore that country is now planning to reorganize the entire system to put resources and decision-making back into the hands of the doctors who provide the care in the first place.

Naturally, the usual suspects are vehemently protesting the plan:

"This would result in a further loss of jobs, health care unions say, and also open the door to further privatization of the service."

Oh no - efficiency would be increased, causing many make-work government jobs to be eliminated, and there might be privatization of something that never should have been placed under government control to begin with?  The horrors!

The NHS doesn't seem to have much choice in the matter, since as we've previously discussed they're being increasingly forced to ration care and deny certain basic procedures to the very people who are supposedly paying for them:

"An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered widespread cuts planned across the NHS, many of which have already been agreed by senior health service officials. They include:


* Restrictions on some of the most basic and common operations, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and orthodontic procedures.

* Plans to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets for the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to be told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends.

* The closure of nursing homes for the elderly.


* A reduction in acute hospital beds, including those for the mentally ill, with targets to discourage GPs from sending patients to hospitals and reduce the number of people using accident and emergency departments.


* Tighter rationing of NHS funding for IVF treatment, and for surgery for obesity.


* Thousands of job losses at NHS hospitals, including 500 staff to go at a trust where cancer patients recently suffered delays in diagnosis and treatment because of staff shortages.


* Cost-cutting programmes in paediatric and maternity services, care of the elderly and services that provide respite breaks to long-term carers."

These are the very sorts of draconian cuts that President Obama as well as the liberals in Congress have solemnly vowed won't happen with our upcoming attempt to emulate this utter fiasco.  Given that Great Britain's foray into socialized medicine has been a complete failure and given our benevolent leaders' many other broken promises and failed attempts to engineer government takeovers of entire sectors of private businesses in the name of "saving" those industries, do you still believe them?