Equal Division of Misery

Behold the future of American health care!

An official report from an independent panel that advises the British National Health Service (NHS), revealed that the NHS delays operations 'as it waits for patients to die or go private,' and that the NHS also forces private hospitals to delay surgeries so that patients at private facilities can suffer just as much:

An independent watchdog accused the National Health Service of forcing waiting times for surgery even when unnecessary in order to reduce the number of publicly-funded procedures in an attempt to save money. In fact, as the Telegraph reports, the NHS forced private hospitals to delay surgeries, too, in a “levelling down” of health care service to keep the NHS from looking bad:

Health service trusts are “imposing pain and inconvenience” by making patients wait longer than necessary, in some cases as long as four months, the study found.

Executives believe the delays mean some people will remove themselves from lists “either by dying or by paying for their own treatment” claims the report, by an independent watchdog that advises the NHS. …

Under government targets, patients should be treated within 18 weeks of referral by a GP. But even when surgeons could see them far sooner, the study found that some trusts made hospitals wait as long as 15 weeks before operating. The tactic forced private hospitals, which were more likely to be able to treat patients quickly, to operate as slowly as overcrowded NHS units in an “unfortunate levelling down”.

Remember, the Obama administration openly aspires to pattern the American health care system after the British NHS:

Dr. Donald Berwick, nominated by President Barack Obama to run Medicare and Medicaid, praised the government-owned British National Health Service (NHS) for not letting their health care system 'play out in the darkness of private enterprise.'

Berwick is also quite fond of the British health care rationing organization, NICE.

Q: NICE is a bogeyman here in the United States.

A: I know that, and it’s a misunderstanding of the deepest sort. NICE is extremely effective and a conscientious, valuable, and — importantly — knowledge-building system. The fact that it’s a bogeyman in this country is a political fact, not a technical one.

I can think of no better real-world illustration of Winston Churchill's famous quote:

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, While the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery"