The U.K. is ramping up healthcare rationing under its National Health Service (NHS). According to The Sunday Telegraph, the NHS has drawn up plans for restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured. Operations including hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery will be rationed in a new attempt to save money.
According to the report, plans also include cuts for terminally ill patients (dying cancer patients will supposedly be sent home and told to manage their own symptoms), closure of nursing homes for the elderly, cost-cutting measures in pediatric and maternity services and care of the elderly.
Doctors have already been told that their patients can have some operations only if they are given “prior approval” by a “primary care trust”, with each authorization made on a “case by case” basis.
Why is this increase in healthcare rationing in the U.K. of concern for the U.S.? Because many of ObamaCare’s nationalized regulations for treatment will be designed by Dr. Donald Berwick. The President used a recess appointment to put Berwick in as Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Berwick is an advocate for government rationing of health care and says “I am romantic about the NHS; I love it.” (pdf of Berwick backgrounder)
But the NHS in Britain is a failure.
A recent study found that under the British nationalized health care system, inequities in the mortality rate between rich and poor have increased, with the inequalities today worse than those during the 1930's economic depression (prior to the NHS). The British government is apparently moving to a decentralized system of healthcare management (opposite to what ObamaCare is doing), to put power in the hands of patients and clinicians and eliminate layers of bureaucracy.
Redistribution of Health
To pay for ObamaCare, almost a half trillion dollars will be cut from Medicare, including Medicare Advantage. According to the Wall Street Journal:
