Crushed by Obamacare?
Posted on 10/16/2012 7:10:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Paul Krugman assured us back in 2009 that, “In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false.”
If that’s the case, then the British press is filled with liars who deliberately make up horror stories about their nation’s healthcare system, as you can see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
We now have another nightmare to add to this list. Here are some of the horrific details from the UK-based Daily Mail.
An elderly woman died alone after doctors failed to tell relatives they were ending her life on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway. Olive Goom, 85, passed away with no one by her side after medics neglected to consult with her family about her treatment at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. …As Miss Goom lay dying alone, staff reassured relatives on the phone just hours before her death that there was no urgent need to visit – even though doctors had already removed tubes providing vital food and fluids. Her family discovered that she had died only when her niece went to visit her and found she was already being prepared for the mortuary. They said last night that they will never be able to stop feeling guilty that no one was there in her final hours. The Mail has been contacted by several families who claim that relatives were put on the Liverpool Care Pathway – the controversial system designed to ease the suffering of the dying in their final hours – without any consultation. Some said they found out that their relatives were on the pathway only after they happened to read their medical notes; and by that time it was too late.
Keep in mind, by the way, that the Liverpool Care Pathway is sort of akin to the IPAB “death panel” in Obamacare.
Defenders of government-run healthcare say that’s nonsense and assert that there won’t be any rationing, denial of care, or requirements for euthanasia. That’s technically true, but the Obamacare death panel will be determining what’s an acceptable treatment and what’s the government-approved payment schedule.
Crushed by Obamacare?
So it’s sort of like holding a rock in your hand, standing over a kitten, letting go of the rock, watching it hit the kitten, but then claiming that you did nothing wrong because gravity caused the rock to fall.
Okay, that’s a morbid example, but you get the point. And my concern isn’t that rationing only exists with a government-run system. Any healthcare system will involve rationing. The real issue is whether individuals are part of a free society so they can make the choice of how to ration.
Bump
Some sheeperals are ignorant, some are simply willfully in denial.
The reality of economics is that any resource is inherently “scarce” and must be allocated/rationed in some manner, be it by cost or by fiat.
Liberals prefer the latter because they are humanists and believe that elite humans can make better decisions than “blind” processes.
But they simultaneously deny what this really means - some person or persons, not you, will decide what you can have. And in the case of healthcare, this means someone else decides whether you live or die.
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Mark this down: The best health insurance available when over 60 under Obamacare will be a Democrat voter registration and a Union membership card.
In basic terms, why add thousands of bureaucrats in between doctors and nurses?
The cost is in the fat layer.
This ensures power over life and death, and that is what Stalin-Hitler-Mao-Che-Obama and Pelosi want. Power to kill.
If a society creates an incentive for death panels, they’ll get death panels.
I am quite certain that had I been living either in Canada or The UK, I would be dead right now.
I was consulting with a new doctor, a hematologist, to help figure out why my iron levels are so low. My family care Dr attributed my lack of energy & strength, as well as my high heart rate at the slightest exertion to anemia and low iron. The hematologist connected some dots and sent me for an immediate ultrasound of my leg. She found that I had DVTs, blood clots in my leg. She then sent me for an immediate cat scan of my chest, where they found at least 3 blood clots in my lungs (I never did get the total number). I was immediately hospitalized, kept in bed, and put on blood thinners. So during a single day, I had a doctor appointment, got an ultrasound AND a cat scan, and transported by ambulance to a hospital, all in less than 11 hours! From why I hear, the way most pulmonary embolisms are detected through autopsies.
How long to get an ultrasound in Canada or the UK? How about a CAT scan? Frankly, I credit my survival to a combination of the Hand of The Lord and my late mother looking after me and the American medical system, which too many people are trying to destroy.
Mark
No you wouldnt.
But is there any point in trying to argue against myths which are so entrenched?.
But is there any point in trying to argue against myths which are so entrenched?.
Glad to hear there's no waiting for procedures like CAT scans or MRIs in the UK.
Mark
I am not saying there arent waiting lists, there are for those who condition is not life threatening or causing chronic pain. (although contrary to myth, you will get an appointment relatively quickly)
But anyone whose symptoms are serious, very serious or life threatening get whipped straight into hospital, just alike the US or any medical system. This idea prevalent in the US that the Brits get left to die of injury or illness because the NHS is dreadful is bunkum. Or the NHS is all we have. I am all for criticism of the NHS, but too much of it is just hysterical nonsense.
I think whilst if most Americans tried the NHS, they might still prefer their own system, theyd be pleasantly surprised at how the NHS isnt quite the hellhole they believe it to be.
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