50 years of socialism--dogs better off in NHS

From Powerline's John Hinderacker:

"After fifty years of socialism, Cuba's economy has regressed to the point where its government is now encouraging farmers to plow with oxen. Government-owned oxen. Cuba gets 100,000 barrels of oil a day from Venezuela, for free, but still can't afford to run its small supply of tractors (also government-owned).

"I am thankful for the revolution," 52-year-old [Zenaida Leon] said. "But we don't get boots, tools, irrigation that works."

"Socialism is the most inept, most destructive system of organization ever devised by mankind. Why would we even consider turning our health care system over to its discredited principles?

"What's the medical equivalent of plowing with oxen? Maybe someday our grandchildren will wait in line to be bled by leeches or have their teeth extracted with pliers.

"UPDATE: The point is reinforced by Theodore Dalrymple, a British doctor, in the Wall Street Journal. He compares human health care (socialized) with veterinary health care (free market) in Great Britain:

"In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to compare the human and veterinary health services of Great Britain, and on the whole it is better to be a dog."

Here's the link to the WSJ article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334282143887974.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And some excerpts: "As a British dog, you get to choose (through an intermediary, I admit) your veterinarian. If you don’t like him, you can pick up your leash and go elsewhere, that very day if necessary. Any vet will see you straight away, there is no delay in such investigations as you may need, and treatment is immediate. There are no waiting lists for dogs, no operations postponed because something more important has come up, no appalling stories of dogs being made to wait for years because other dogs—or hamsters—come first.

"The conditions in which you receive your treatment are much more pleasant than British humans have to endure. For one thing, there is no bureaucracy to be negotiated with the skill of a white-water canoeist; above all, the atmosphere is different. There is no tension, no feeling that one more patient will bring the whole system to the point of collapse, and all the staff go off with nervous breakdowns. In the waiting rooms, a perfect calm reigns; the patients’ relatives are not on the verge of hysteria, and do not suspect that the system is cheating their loved one, for economic reasons, of the treatment which he needs. They are not terrified that someone is getting more out of the system than they. ...

"The latter is the fear that also haunts Americans, at least those Americans who think of justice as equality in actual, tangible benefits. That is the ideological driving force of health-care reform in America....