July 29, 2007

What's the rush? Or, Socialized Medicine Episode #728,549,943.

A 108-year-old woman has been told by the [U.K. National Health Service] she must wait until she is 110 to get a new hearing aid.

Olive Beal, one of the oldest women in Britain, is wheelchair bound and is losing her eyesight . . . .

* * * *

[H]er family were shocked to be told there is an 18-month waiting list by the health trust covering her care home in Deal, Kent.
Free market medicine rations health care by price, unless one is very poor, in which case one gets free medical care. Socialized medicine rations health care by delay.

Here, administrators who make the actual decisions that apply the rules could not factor into their decision the fact that the patient under their care was 108 years old, not 55. No need to rush things. No need to be creative and find a way around the normal rules. Nope. This lady has time to burn.

This is the kind of system that Hillary wants to jam down the throats of Americans.

"108-year-old woman told to wait until she is 110 for hearing aid." Daily Mail, 7/29/07.

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