A September 6, 2014 headline in Great Britain’s Daily Mail announced, “Now NHS lets you jump the queue for routine surgery... if you'll pay
What is happening in Great Britain’s vaunted in NHS (National Health Service) is of vital interest to Americans. Dr. Donald Berwick, one of the prime designers of the Affordable Care Act, proudly said in 2010 that the NHS was his model for our ACA. By seeing where the NHS is today, we can foresee where U.S. healthcare is headed tomorrow.
To reduce the escalating costs of their healthcare system, the NHS has been rationing care, either by stating what care will be denied or by restricting how much money is allocated and thus limiting the supply of authorized goods and services. That is why people wait forever for care. When not enough money is expended to pay doctors, to buy MRI scanners, or to construct operating room and burn units, what happens? People die by queueing. American veterans know about this up close and personal.
According to official British government statistics, in August 2014, there were 3.2 million Britons – 5% of their total population! -- awaiting surgery. Some – 189,571, to be precise -- had already waited for more than four months!
To get paid at all, and to try to get patients the care they need (before they die while waiting, like U.S. veterans and Canadians), British hospitals have begun advertising that self-funded patients can move up the queue, or they can get care that is denied by NHS rationing. In other words, those with money, who already paid for their health care through taxes, can get the care they need by paying (again) out of pocket.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
