Neighborhood Ministries

Britain is showing a perfect example of why we  do not want socialized medicine. The baby that has been in the news was in serious condition. A government panel decided that the treatment would be too expensive to warrant doing it. They ordered the hospital to pull the plug on the baby and let it die. The parents appealed to them not to do it and got a court to hear it but the court agreed with the doctors. A hospital in Italy agreed to accept the baby and treat it but the court in Britain refused to allow the baby to be released so it could be flown to Italy for treatment. It all boils down to cost. The government, not the parents, decided and based their decision on the fact that they did not feel it was worth the cost, not on the fact that it was a child that could be saved with treatment. In addition, they would not allow it to be transferred to a hospital willing to treat it. Those are classic elements in socialized medicine. The government decides, the decision is based on cost, and they do not allow it to be taken out of the country where it can receive treatment. This has happened a number of times in Britain and other countries with socialized medicine where they have refused treatment and refused to allow them to be transferred to somewhere willing to treat them, but most are not publicized. It would not be so bad  if they allowed them to be transferred somewhere else to be treated, even at the person’s own expense but that would open the door to people bypassing their control over the system and in the end, it is about control. Canada  at least allows people to leave the country to be treated at the patient’s own expense