I was reminded today of something I read in the London Telegraph a few weeks ago. The Brits, Lord love ‘em, have a law requiring patients going to the emergency room to be seen within, I believe it was 4 hours from the time they entered the ER. That is the government, concerned over wait times for sick people. The problem though, is a bit bigger than that.
You see, in order to meet the time requirements, patients would be left outside in the ambulance for up to 6 hours before being taken inside for the clock to start on the ER staff. Kind of reminds me of waiting in a line for an hour or so, only to get to the window just as the clerk was going to lunch. At any rate, this is the type of top notch service we can expect if Hillary gets her way and we end up with National Health Care.
Obviously, no one in government has ever taken a college level course in economics. If everyone is paying for health care through their taxes, there are no barriers to demand. Demand becomes infinite. There aren’t enough Doctors or Hospitals in a healthy system to take care of an infinite number of patients, much less one that has been artificially stripped to its barest minimum through legislation.
When the government starts setting prices for medical procedures and surgeries, Doctors and clinics will move into some other business that is not restricting their ability to make a profit (living). As the pool of resources shrinks and prices are controlled by regulation, rationing is the next logical step that has to be made. The government will then be in a position to determine whether or not your life is worth the effort to save. Is she too old? What kind of benefit will he bring to society if we allow this procedure? There will be charts and statistics to tell health care workers whether or not to provide you with health care.
This is fairly simple economics, and something we all need to be aware of when we enter the voting booth in November.
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