The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people’s bed space: The Liverpool Care Pathway.
h/t Adrian

The Province;

“We have no intention of not treating our patients, or telling people who are suffering in pain that we’ll do nothing for them,” [Dr. Brian Day] said. “So we’ve told the government, ‘Go get your injunction and we’ll see you in court.’
“We’re still waiting.” The Christy Clark government, represented by the B.C. Medical Services Commission, conducted an audit of Day’s clinic and concluded he was breaking the law by charging patients directly for publicly insured services.
[…]
“I’ve said all along that politicians of all stripes – NDP, Liberal, Conservative – union leaders, including leaders within the nurses’ union, high-profile people of all types – they’ve all been to our clinic for treatment.
“Yet, at the same time, many of these same people will say they don’t support the private sector in health care. There’s a lot of hypocrisy that goes on.”

Nobody needs to be a doctor!

In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.

Toronto Star;

Rates of C. difficile dropped by more than one quarter in Ontario after the province made it mandatory for hospitals to publicly report cases of the deadly hospital-acquired infection, according to a new study on the patient safety problem.
Researchers say the drop in rates suggest that public reporting helped to focus hospitals’ attention on C. difficile, prompting them to find ways to prevent and reduce the spread of the infectious organism

Via Harry K., who writes;

So let me get this right: Only public exposure aka accountability made $300,000+ a year hospital administrators worry about not killing people needlessly?
It really really is time that public administrators and politicians were exposed to the same level of accountability as we are in the private sector.
In my property management business if say a fire door in one of my buildings does not latch closed properly and I do not notice it but the fire prevention office did after a couple of visits, I will be charged and be successfully prosecuted and face a fine of $1,000. And nobody has died.
So what can anyone say about healthcare administrators that allow people to die? Could you imagine how much money or how many lives could be saved in our country if public administrators would feel the same pain of at least a reduced pay cheque like the private sector does if a mistake happens?

Nobody needs to be a doctor.

Ontario’s Health Minister is still angered by the number of millionaire doctors populating the province.
“I was appalled when I saw how many were making in excess of $1 million,” Deb Matthews said, referring to a list that counted over 400 names in 2010.
“Some doctors are getting paid too much. We need to address the issue of relativity. Some doctors in some specialties are earning a fraction of what doctors in other specialties are earning.”

(h/t Bull)

Death panels? What death panels?

Have your insulin at the ready…

I have to think that intimation of death expressed itself, not only in the courage and dignity with which he went about his own business, but in his considerate treatment of others, even his adversaries. How could it not? Much of the preposterousness of politics stems from the participants’ lunatic enlargement of the stakes, the “this is war” mentality with which they justify to themselves each appalling act. How childish these games must seem, when you are fighting for your life.

Indeed, it must.
It’s hypocrites like Jack Layton who are collectively responsible for elevating Canada’s “universal” health care system into an obscene sacred cow that inflicts delayed treatment and premature death on faceless, nameless, uncelebrated Canadians each and every year.
And may he and his pal Tommy rot in hell for it.

Find an anti-Semite.
(h/t)

Uncle Meat;

With word that nearly 5,000 appointments have been cancelled across Saskatchewan because of the rotating strikes by Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan workers, I need to ask the government a serious health-care question: If it isn’t mandatory for the workers to participate in the government health-care monopoly then why is it mandatory for me to use it?

Further to this lengthy SDA post from last December (which I suggest you re-read in its entirety), the problem of pharmaceutical shortages continues unabated – and largely unreported. An Instapundit reader;

As a pharmacist of 25 years currently working in hospital pharmacy-I can tell you that the drug shortages are ongoing, dire, and in some cases life-threatening. Take a look at ashp.org/shortages to see the extent of the problem. Many items on the list are for crash carts and critical care.
We’ve had to resort to back-up products, alternatives and work-arounds. All of which compromise quality of care and safety.

Here’s the current list of drug shortages from American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Ayn Rand, 1957;

Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patient, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said only ‘to serve’…Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce..

Ed Stelmach! Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Globe & Mail, April 5th – Tuesday’s announcement sent shock waves rippling across an industry that has spent vast sums of money to acquire land in the region. The prospect of having parts of it ripped away prompted one executive to compare Alberta to Venezuela, and to warn that any expropriation of land may frighten away investment crucial to developing one of Alberta’s most important economic resources.
Carlyle Observer, April 1st – [Saskatchewan] Finance Minister Ken Krawetz unveiled the budget in a cheerful mood, reporting spending will come in at $10.7 billion, while revenues are slated to round out at $10.8 billion. This sets the province up for a $115 million surplus in the general revenue fund covering the ministries. There is $54 million surplus expected for the summary accounts, which includes Crown corporations as well as ministries.

This past Thursday I had the great honour to be present when Calvin Helin was interviewed in Vancouver. I found him to be an extremely intelligent, thoughtful, and well spoken gentleman – truly an inspiration!
Here’s Part 1:

And here’s Part 2. If you like what he has to say, you can join his Facebook group here.

Nope … not here!

Nobody needs to be a doctor.

Via Drudge

Fasten your seatbelts, folks – here comes that post health reform bill bounce!

Obama’s approval rating was 47%-50% — the first time his disapproval rating has hit 50%.
[…]
There was a strong reaction against the tactics Democratic leaders used to pass the bill. A 53% majority call Democratic methods “an abuse of power;” 40% say they are appropriate.
And when asked about incidents of vandalism and threats that followed the bill’s passage, Americans are more inclined to blame Democratic political tactics than critics’ harsh rhetoric.

Hey, they’re getting what they voted for. Plus, he’s for the children!

What went wrong? Basically we have witnessed a communications breakdown between people who speak English (like Barack Obama, who is not a student of insurance arcana) and the people who speak “Insurance”.

And now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose! Yesterday’s announcement from the Cradle Of Universal Health Care: “To shorten surgical waits: Third-party delivery of out-patient surgery and MRI/CT scans within the publicly funded and administered system will be introduced…”

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Fidel Castro…

“We consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of his (Obama’s) government…”

Fidel Castro’s hospitals…

So you thought it was hard to find foreign doctors, eh?
Just you wait.
“Dennis” nails it (in the comments):

Obamacare contains a critical contradiction that is bound to result in the total collapse of the American health ins. industry. As the Martin Feldstein article in a November Washington Post article points out, if the fines for not buying ins. are set too low, it’s financially advantageous to pay them and forgo ins. altogether.
Since the bill prohibits health ins. providers from denying ins. based on pre-existing conditions, it may be cheaper in many instances to wait until you are sick before getting coverage.
This will set in motion a progressive unbalancing of health ins. whereby the pool of healthy people in an ins. scheme becomes swamped by the sick. Premiums must therefore skyrocket. But since Obamacare also promises to slap price controls on health ins. the system is set to become vastly unprofitable. At some point not too far down the road, the whole health care ins. system in the U.S. will utterly fail like Chrysler and GM.
At that point, there will be increasing calls for the outright nationalization of the whole mess, which was Obama’s goal all along.

Bingo. “It’s going to be like Christmas”

Repeat after me, America: “SACRED COW”…

In the Democrat leadership, we are not dealing with conventional politicians for whom the goal of being reelected is paramount and will rein in their radicalism. They want socialized medicine and all it entails about government control even more than they want to win elections. After all, if the party of government transforms the relationship between the citizen and the state, its power over our lives will be vast even in those cycles when it is not in the majority. This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you’ve calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state.

I nearly forgot to add – she’ll be a union cow. You pay guaranteed wages, they get guaranteed patients.
Don’t worry. You’ll learn to love her so much no politician will dare speak out against her.
More – “The main reason socialists love public health care….”

Their health* is important.

His is the ideological gift to the world that just keeps giving;

THE [British] National Health Service has spent £1.5m paying for hundreds of its staff to have private health treatment so they can leapfrog their own waiting lists.
More than 3,000 staff, including doctors and nurses, have gone private at the taxpayers’ expense in the past three years because the queues at the clinics and hospitals where they work are too long.

Who do they think they are – politicians? With that in mind, here’s a poll question that should get people fired up.

(Via)
Update – in response to some of the comments posted here, this SDA flashback…