Wednesday - October 17, 2007

National Health Care: Rationed Care 

Even though American health care costs keep going up at unacceptable rates, do we really want to rush headlong into socialized medicine?

In England, they ration care by limiting bed spaces:

Anthony and Elizabeth Jones didn't plan on a home delivery but she gave birth at home after being turned away from a Wales hospital, twice.

Elizabeth, 24, went into labor about 7 a.m., Wednesday, but the couple said they were told to go home when they went to the maternity ward of Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.

"They told us they were shut because they were full and to go have a cup of coffee and come back," Anthony Jones told the South Wales Echo. "We only live five minutes up the road, so we went home."

The couple came back to the hospital at 11 a.m. and a midwife sent them home a second time. Elizabeth Jones gave birth to baby Emily just over an hour later. 

In Canada, they ration care by making patients wait for life giving treatments:

How will Democrats ration health care in America?