Aug 08 2009
Timing Is Everything Liberals
Well isn’t this bit of news from across the pond very timely:
Intensive Care
Behind every story of shortages in the National Health Service lies a much more fundamental problem. The money is running out
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Demand will always beat supply. A story could be written every day with the same basic message. There is never enough. The latest instance is that one in twenty NHS posts for doctors and dentists is vacant; the places are filled with exorbitantly expensive agency staff (see page 16).
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Back in the real world, the pressure on cost is remorseless. A recent report from the King’s Fund and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) showed how the NHS cannot provide a comprehensive service on current assumptions after 2011.
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But the structural deficit in health spending is even more serious. The IFS has concluded that, even if the NHS budget is not cut in real terms over the next spending review period, funding is likely to fall short of the population’s healthcare needs by more than £30 billion.
That is because the demands we have of the service are now out of all alignment with our willingness to pay for them. There are more pensioners than there have been in any previous era and they are living to the ripe old ages at which they contract expensively treatable diseases. The innovative genius of health scientists has made more diseases treatable, usually with new drugs that are, at least initially, very expensive. It is not surprising that citizens demand all that can be done. In a public system, every citizen is sensitive to pain and insensitive to price.
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We cannot afford all that we can do so healthcare will have to be rationed further.
Emphasis mine. It seems the UK health care system, the touted model for Obamacare, is on the verge of collapse. As I pondered below, what dire threat to this nation are we facing that would rationalize going down this sure-to-fail path? It would seem that it is actually the UK which is facing a critical health care crisis, and it should strongly consider junking their government run disaster and be looking at the American model.
Fate has a nasty sense of irony and humor it seems. Just when Obamacare is on the verge of collapse, so is its role model example.
Why is cash for clunkers such a successful program? Because the government is giving away $4,500 to people who earn less the $75,000 a year to buy a new car. These very same people can enroll their children in the S-CHIPS program, are too poor to afford medical insurance, and are eligible for other government programs. But they can afford a $22,000 new car. I don’t know how much the payments are on a new car as I have never bought one, but it sounds crazy to me. Why would a government encourage a family to by a new car when they can’t take care of the basics of life?
If the government gave away medical care, like they gave away new cars, how long would it take to run out of money?
Did you see the story about the WWll vet who trains dogs for wounded warriors from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars? He was financing the program out of his own pocket, and training companion dogs for as many warriors as he could. Fox did a story on him, and said if anyone wanted to help out they could contact the guy at this address. Well the long a short of the story is that he has been flooded with thank you mail, and thousands of dollars that will keep him in business training dogs and giving them to those who need them.
So my question is, is America ready to have the government decide the common good for all? Or are Americans individuals who value individuality and are ready to help those who need help to make their lives better, as a free will gesture?
Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan……. he has yet to devise a plan to win. Five more troops killed on Thursday.
Obama closes Gitmo……he has no plan of where to put prisoners.
Obama passes the largest spending bill in history……he didn’t know how bad the economy was, 9.4% unemployment.
Obama wants a government plan for medical care to take care of 45 million uninsured. He doesn’t know it will put other health care insurers out of business. He doesn’t know that we can’t keep our doctors because they wouldn’t beable to afford to keep us. He doesn’t know what to do with the elders who won’t die. He doesn’t know that Medicare is running out of money and wants to put more people on the plan. He doesn’t want to know yet if it will lead to a one payer plan. REALLY!
Give Obama some credit. He understands that the UK system is failing because of the elderly, disabled and other sick people. His plan is to eliminate all these with death counseling every five years. Then, voila, his plan won’t fail.
And if these people won’t do themselves in, then he will deny treatment. One way or another these people will be eliminated so that his plan will be successful. After all, we need to take care of people who won’t work and who are in this country illegally but not our citizens who have worked all their lives and paid taxes through the nose and who were actually born here.