A Stitch in Haste

A health care socialist plays the Sicko card and calls for universal Medicare in the New England Journal of Medicine:

But rather than give her antibiotics, the doctor calls her insurer, whose physician-gatekeeper tells him that Mychelle is not covered at the hospital and must be taken to another facility. The doctor repeatedly says that Mychelle needs care, and he is repeatedly told that she must be transferred first. Finally, nearly 3 hours after arriving at the hospital, wracked by seizures, Mychelle is taken to the approved facility. She dies 15 minutes later.

Assuming it really happened that way, is there any rational basis to believe that similar, if not worse, nightmares would not occur under socialized medicine?

Who honestly expects that there would be fewer Mychelles under a regime of "bureaucrat-gatekeepers" than with "physician-gatekeepers"?

More:

Sicko may well be remembered as our generation's Silent Spring or The Jungle — propaganda, in the best sense of the word, that pricks our collective conscience about problems that are hidden in plain sight.

I love that phrase: "propaganda, in the best sense of the word." That sums up nicely the mindset of most health care socialists: Lying in the pursuit of what (you think) is honorable is also honorable? This is a component of "enlightened" public policy? These are the same sort of people who hate Bush for lying about Iraq? Go figure. (See here regarding the "noble" propaganda of Silent Sprint. And people do realize, I hope, that The Jungle was not just fiction but fantasy.)

Finally:

Medicare, our country's most popular and successful public insurance plan, covers everyone older than 65 and people with disabilities[.]

What kind of volitional cognitive dissonance does it require (by a physician, no less) to call Medicare — which is going hopelessly bankrupt — "most successful"? Simply amazing. (Compare with this post on whether Social Security has been a "success.")

(Via Kevin, M.D.)