Annals of Government Medicine, With a Postscript on American Liberals

If you want your health care to be run like the post office, government medicine is for you. Otherwise, not so much. From the U.K., another in a long series of sad stories about government malfeasance, arising out of an inquest into the death of a four-year-old boy:

A four-year-old boy who died on a “shambolic” hospital ward was so neglected that he resorted to sucking moisture out of wet wipes, his parents told an inquest today. …
[A]fter the operation he was moved out of intensive care too soon because his bed was needed for other patients, his parents told the inquest. They also claimed doctors missed a series of warning signs, including continuous vomiting, a high loss of fluids and huge blood clots and high blood pressure.
His mother Yolanda, 45, said she begged for help but “nobody would listen” on Ward 32 at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

Why would they listen? The nurses don’t work for the patients, they work for the government.

On February 12, 2012 Sean began to throw up once more and complain of a pain in his foot. He became reliant on his oxygen mask again and became more and more dehydrated – even sucking moisture from tissues to quench his thirst.
“I could see he was bad but nobody listened,” said Mrs Turner, a foster mother. “I asked so many times if he could go back to PICU but I was told there were no beds or he was not critical enough. “He was so dehydrated he was grabbing the tissues used to cool his head and sucking the fluid from them.”

Of course, if you ask American liberals who favor government medicine, death isn’t necessarily so bad. John Nolte notes the views of Bill Keller, recently retired as editor of the New York Times, and his wife, who criticized a young woman who blogged about her fight to stay alive:

On the pages of the Sunday Times Keller reveals a monstrous philosophy that in so many ways is revealing of the elite left as a whole — especially as it pertains to ObamaCare. In so many words, Keller just can’t bring himself to understand why Adams doesn’t give up her fight and die. In his mind, her death is inevitable and all she’s doing is spending a lot of money that could be better spent elsewhere. …
Keller’s primary fear seems to be that Adams will serve as an example to others to never give up — to keep spending someone’s inheritance or The State’s money as opposed to dying with dignity like a good little socialist. …
Keller isn’t even paraphrasing poet Dylan Thomas properly, who urged us “Do not go gentle into that good night … rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

We don’t expect literary competence from liberals.

[N]ow this brave woman, who is understandably desperate to see her children grow up, and who believes sharing her story will help others, is being life-shamed on the pages of the Guardian and New York Times because the Kellers are made uncomfortable by the idea of someone making the personal choice to stay alive for every possible day and minute she can.
What the Kellers appear to be doing is worse than lobbying for euthanasia, which at the very least is a personal decision. From their elite perches, the Kellers are tag-teaming a woman hospitalized with Stage IV cancer as a selfish and narcissistic financial drain over the twin sins of aggressively fighting for her life and, through her example, possibly encouraging others to do the same.

If this represents your vision of the future, hey: your course is clear. Vote for Democrats. This is what they want.


http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/01/annals-of-government-medicine-with-a-postscript-on-american-liberals.php