« Scientists Address the Menace of Belching Sheep | Main | Enivonazis Continue to Campaign Against Toilet Paper »
February 27, 2009
Another Tale of Socialized Medicine
From socialized Britain, here's what's in store for us now that Chairman Zero — always a friend of unions — has nationalized healthcare:
A paramedic refused to help a man in agony with a broken back because he was on his lunchbreak, a tribunal was told.
Robert Chambers was approached by the man's desperate friends as he filled his ambulance with fuel.
To their horror he told them to wait for another ambulance before driving off.
At last an ambulance arrived whose driver wasn't on his lunch break. But it didn't have the space to transport a patient with back injuries. So he waited 40 minutes for a third ambulance. No doubt further apathy and incompetence awaited at the hospital. Welcome to our glorious socialist future.
It's a great time to be a moocher or a slacker — but not such a good time to be anything else.
On a tip from Ian.
Posted by Van Helsing at February 27, 2009 6:43 AM
Comments
And yet when I tell lefties they will receive the same quality of care under socialized health care as they receive from the Department of Motor Vehicles, they "insist" that the only change will be that "the government" will be paying for the care.
Anyway, this photo would make a great Open Thread header. Credit 'The People's Cube."
Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at February 27, 2009 6:51 AM
Sounds very similar to the French health care system I know and hate.
AC
Posted by: AC at February 27, 2009 6:58 AM
At 4AM I entered a NYC emergency room in extreme pain (turned out to be a kidney stone). The doctor needed X-rays before he would treat me so off I went to radiology. There was this flaming girlyboy technician who started complaining as to why I was brought down there at the end of his shift and his relief hadn't showed up yet. So he called his (or her?) supervisor and started ranting why he had to stay overtime blah blah blah.
At that point I just grabbed him by his bleached blond hair and told him,
'You fucking fag, you better start taking pictures or I'm gonna kill you right now'.
I'm afraid that's going to be what health care is going to be like soon.
Posted by: Shooter1001 at February 27, 2009 8:12 AM
And I believed I posted here that I raised alarm bells with the AARP when this first came to light. They just wrote back and said "dont' worry, all will be wonderful under the Messiah." I wrote back saying I wasn't buying it. They wrote back and said "No really! :)"
Posted by: Karin at February 27, 2009 9:10 AM
And yet Britain and France have higher life-expectancy, lower infant mortality rates, and lower instances of heart-attacks, among numerous other indicators that point to better health care. Anecdotes provide the only means of attacking socialized medicine; actual facts, statistical analysis and, y'know, reality, all point to the superiority of the system. That paramedic in England was clearly negligent, but how about anecdotes about the millions of Americans who have no health care whatsoever.
Posted by: Ben at February 27, 2009 9:26 AM
When the government has significant control over the statistics it's pretty freaking hard to find numbers that point out how bad things are.
Posted by: Anonymous at February 27, 2009 11:04 AM
As far as lower infant mortality is concerned, in most European countries, if a baby is born dead or dies shortly after childbirth, that baby isn't counted as having died.
By their method, it was never a 'baby'. In the US those infants are counted in the mortality stats thereby giving one the misleading impression that our mortality rate is higher. Its not.
Why would you believe a bureaucrat with a vested interest in positive stats for his country anyway?
The response to the claim that France and England have a longer life span stats is simply this;
go live in France or England if its not good enough for you here. Take your citizenship with you when you leave!
Posted by: Shooter1001 at February 27, 2009 1:03 PM
It should be remembered that the first EMT units were founded in Virginia in the 1920s by a PRIVATE CITIZEN, not by the high and mighty government!
There once was a time when Americans didn't sit on their "donkeys" and cry for the government to save them from themselves, they CREATED goods and services that made the US the greatest country in the world!
But now look at us.
Posted by: KHarn at February 27, 2009 2:41 PM
As the previous poster pointed out when the government has control of both healthcare and statistics on healthcare any "life expectancy" numbers should be treated with a grain of salt.
A classic case in point is here http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5988/.
The government decides that smoking is bad for you and thus bans it. Surprise, surprise a scientific study comes out lauding the results of the ban. Only problem was the study was crap. Amazing what the scientific "consensus" buys you these days.
I have lived the dream of socialized healthcare and it ain't a good one.
Posted by: Ian at February 27, 2009 2:57 PM
Oops don't include the "." at the end of the URL
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5988/
Posted by: Ian at February 27, 2009 2:59 PM
how about anecdotes about the millions of Americans who have no health care whatsoever.
Because there are none. Emergency rooms are required, by law, to treat anyone who shows up and demands health care. That's part of the damn problem.
Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at February 28, 2009 4:02 PM
