Thursday, March 11, 2010

Oy Canada! PLUS MVNHS© Losing Steam?

Even as we rush headlong into the abyss that is ObamaCare, it would be wise to consider the (tragic) fates of those who already suffer under such a system.

First up, our Neighbors to the North©:

"Kent Pankow lives in Edmonton, in a province and a country that is trying to either kill him or bankrupt him ... Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery."

Such is the nature of "free" health care: if the government provides it, the government can deny it. And by the way, that argument does not apply to insurance companies, which can, at worst, withhold only payment; they cannot withhold actual treatment.

In the event, Mr Pankow suffered from a fast-growing tumor which, had it been elsewhere in his body, would have been covered. He was doubly unfortunate, though, because the government-run health care system deemed him ineligible for treatment. Which doesn't mean they refused to pay for it (although that's exactly what happened), but that the unaccountable bureaucrats explicitly refused to grant him access to care. Death Panels, anyone?

Now, $106,000 later, the poor man gets hit again:

"[T]he province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size."

Again, had the tumor appeared in, for example, his lungs or colon, the government would have provided this life-saving medication. In effect, they've condemned him to a slow and painful death.

Quick, let's do that here!

[Hat Tip: FoIB Peter Krieger]

Meanwhile, across the pond, the MVNHS© faces its own Death Panel:

"Hundreds of NHS wards to be shut in secret plans"

Turns out, the folks who run that other scheme of socialized medicine haven't figured out how to rein in the cost of health care, either. So they'll do what any other service provider would in the face of increasing red ink: cut back on the delivery of said services. Again, this is the heavy hand of a government-run system: they have the gold, they make (and enforce) the rules. Such a system is inherently unsustainable, as the headline above demonstrates.

So what do sick Brits do when their government shuts them out? Well, they turn to their own health insurance plans.

What, you didn't know that our Cousins Across the Pond have figured out the shortfalls of their public health system? They're not stupid:

"[O]ne of the main reasons for the current great value of Health Insurance Policies for UK citizens [both at home and abroad] is that British providers of health insurance are being pressed by their consumers [both current and potential] to make every saving possible."

Told ya so.
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