Nationalized Health Care: Is it Really a Good Idea?
Is nationalized health care really the way to go? Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton say it is. Thinking about it what could be better. It sounds great as we would all get health care that would be paid for by the government. We wouldn't have to worry about paying anymore, shopping for a plan, or worrying about losing our health insurance when we switch jobs. But at what cost?
What would happen to the quality of the product we would get since competition would be eliminated? What would happen to research and development? These questions are all part of a bigger point that we would be paying for it anyway. The government would just be taking away our freedom to choose, not to mention the tax increases that would be necessary to create such a program and the increased governmental control in our lives. Is nationalized health care worth it?
This article appeared in the February 28,2008 edition of the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom. This story tells the truth about the future of our health care system if it becomes nationalized like Hillary and Obama hope to do.
Do you not fear a government that makes the decision whether you should live or die?
**************************
NHS chief tells grandmother, 61, she's too old for £5000 life-saving heart surgery
by Chris Brooke
A woman of 61 was refused a routine heart operation by a hard-up NHS trust for being too old.
Dorothy Simpson suffers from an irregular heartbeat and is at increased risk of a stroke. But health chiefs refused to allow the procedure which was recommended by her specialist.
The school secretary was stunned by the ruling.
"I can't believe that at 61 I'm too old for this operation," she said.
"A friend has had exactly the same thing done and it has changed his life.
"I feel as though I've been put out to grass and surely deserve better than this."
Mrs Simpson, of Leake, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, was diagnosed three years ago with atrial fibrillation, a condition suffered by a million people in the UK.
It can cause palpitations, heart failure, strokes, shortness of breath, chest pains and blackouts.
Drugs have had limited success and her hospital consultant decided the most effective treatment would be a procedure known as a catheter ablation.
An electrode on the tip of a long wire is manoeuvred through a vein or artery and destroys abnormal heart tissue causing the rhythm problems.
National guidelines set no age limit for the procedure, which is usually carried out under local anaesthetic and has a better than 75 per cent chance of curing the condition.
Her consultant's application for Mrs Simpson to have the operation was rejected in December.
The North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust is said to have cited her age as one of the reasons for refusal.
Mrs Simpson said: "'If I lived in another part of the country there wouldn't be a problem.
"The condition is very distressing and is now starting to affect my work.
"I'm generally an upbeat person but this sort of condition affects you more and more as time goes on, and attacks happen more often. What concerns me most is the risk of a stroke."
A spokesman for the Atrial Fibrillation Association said: "In this day and age when people are living longer, it is wrong that they should have the door to their future shut in their face."
However late yesterday, following media interest in Mrs Simpson's plight, the PCT backed down and agreed to fund her treatment.
Medical director Dr David Geddes apologised to Mrs Simpson for the "distress" caused by the delay.
He said: "We have reviewed the case in the light of the additional clinical information and national guidance and, as Mrs Simpson fits the clinical criteria, we have agreed funding for her treatment."
"All decisions are taken on individual clinical needs; we do not discriminate on the grounds of age.
"Our procedures exist to ensure fair decision-making, based on clinical evidence, for all our patients."
****************************
