We hear constantly about how the democrats want to bring socialized medicine from Europe to the US. Let’s be clear about what that would mean to our quality of life:

Friday January 10, 2003

The government today claimed it was on course to meet a key pledge that no one should have to wait more than a year for hospital treatment after new figures showed that the NHS was making inroads into patient lists.
The new waiting time data will come as a relief to the health secretary, Alan Milburn, in the wake of a leaked Downing Street memo which this week warned of an “immense risk” that extra investment in the NHS will not lead to improvements at the frontline.

The numbers may also help to quell backbench unrest about the health secretary’s controversial plans for semi-autonomous foundation hospitals – 25 Labour MPs abstained on Wednesday from a vote to endorse the policy.

The waiting list figures show that the number of patients waiting more than 12 months for inpatient treatment fell by 3,000 between October and November 2002.

The number has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2001, but ministers still face an uphill struggle to meet their target of eradicating waits of more than a year by March.

Health service managers warned that the target remained “hugely challenging” with a backlog of 12,500 patients still to be dealt with before the government’s goal can be reached.

And from our liberal-ated friends from the north:

One Supreme Court decision may have done more to change health care in Canada than three major reports and a first ministers conference that ended with a $41-billion infusion into the system.

On June 9, 2005, the high court struck down a Quebec law that prohibited people from buying private health insurance to cover procedures already offered by the public system.

“Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” two of the justices wrote in their decision.
…
A long wait for hip replacement surgery was what prompted the Quebec case that wound up before the Supreme Court.

George Zeliotis argued his yearlong wait for surgery was unreasonable, endangered his life, and infringed on the charter’s guarantee of the right to life, liberty and security. The second plaintiff, Dr. Jacques Chaoulli, wanted the court to overturn a Quebec provision preventing doctors who don’t operate within the medicare plan from charging for services in public hospitals.

Er…No thanks.