Dept. of Socialized Medicine

It’s been a while since I did one of these, but perusing the blogosphere I came across an excellent post on the subject at The Munchkin Wrangler. Excerpt:

If you think the personification of evil is the organ recipient who dies because they were not high enough on the organ waiting list, and you think that socialized medicine would fix such ills, you have a surprise coming your way. In socialized-medicine countries like Germany or Great Britain, you’ll be shocked to find waiting lists for seeing the doctor.

Last year, my 84-year old grandmother collapsed in her kitchen on a Saturday, fully conscious but unable to move. Luckily, a neighbor found her, and they took her to the hospital. Because she was fully conscious and not in an immediately life-threatening situation, she had to wait until Monday morning to even see a doctor to assess her, because the public hospital only keeps doctors on call for life-threatening emergencies on weekends for cost reasons, and the pencil pushers in charge of health care decided that her situation did not warrant seeing a doctor right away.

Usually the response to this is something on the order of the defense of Communism: “It wouldn’t be like that if everybody participated!”

Bullshit.