While legacy media reports that the ObamaTax rolls out tomorrow aren't quite accurate (various portions have been implemented over the past 3 1/2+ years), the opening of the Exchanges is certainly a high- (or low-, depending on one's perspective) watermark. And so in that spirit, let's see what our Friends Across the Pond© and Neighbors to the North© have wrought, in order to better understand the future of health "care" in America.
■ Reader Peter K tips us to this little gem from Merry Olde England:
"A teenage girl died after doctors failed to carry out basic checks that may have revealed she was suffering from life-threatening brain damage"
15-year-old Amie Miller had been suffering from headaches and nausea, and couldn't even open her eyes. Some very simple tests might have revealed the extent of the damage, and saved her life.
But that's not the best part. This is:
It took 5 years for the Royal Rocket Surgeons to figure this out.
■ It's probably a good thing that little Amie didn't smoke, or things could have gone even worse:
"Patients are being denied minor treatments because they smoke ... a healthy middle-aged man was told he could not have a ten-minute operation to cut a small benign growth off the side of his head, because of his habit."
One might endeavor to argue that smokers who develop lung-cancer ought to pay some penalty at claim time. But the Much Vaunted (and Totally Compassionate) National Health System© has begun denying actual care for non-smoking-related health problems to those who choose to light up.
Death Panels IPAB at its finest.
■ Meanwhile, our Neighbors to the North© prove that, when it comes to denying care to those most in need, they're no slouches, either:
"The daughter of a 67-year-old woman is planning to sue Pierre-Boucher Hospital in Longueuil [in Quebec] after her mother spent 13 hours in the emergency room without being seen by a doctor."
The good news is that Mom's health care was "free."
The bad news is that Mom's free health care killed her.
The ObamaTax Exchanges (are scheduled to) open tomorrow.
■ Reader Peter K tips us to this little gem from Merry Olde England:
"A teenage girl died after doctors failed to carry out basic checks that may have revealed she was suffering from life-threatening brain damage"
15-year-old Amie Miller had been suffering from headaches and nausea, and couldn't even open her eyes. Some very simple tests might have revealed the extent of the damage, and saved her life.
But that's not the best part. This is:
It took 5 years for the Royal Rocket Surgeons to figure this out.
■ It's probably a good thing that little Amie didn't smoke, or things could have gone even worse:
"Patients are being denied minor treatments because they smoke ... a healthy middle-aged man was told he could not have a ten-minute operation to cut a small benign growth off the side of his head, because of his habit."
One might endeavor to argue that smokers who develop lung-cancer ought to pay some penalty at claim time. But the Much Vaunted (and Totally Compassionate) National Health System© has begun denying actual care for non-smoking-related health problems to those who choose to light up.
■ Meanwhile, our Neighbors to the North© prove that, when it comes to denying care to those most in need, they're no slouches, either:
"The daughter of a 67-year-old woman is planning to sue Pierre-Boucher Hospital in Longueuil [in Quebec] after her mother spent 13 hours in the emergency room without being seen by a doctor."
The good news is that Mom's health care was "free."
The bad news is that Mom's free health care killed her.
The ObamaTax Exchanges (are scheduled to) open tomorrow.
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