This story about a woman in Britain whose son in Spain got to the hospital before her was a horrible case, but is still just an anecdote. This evidence against state medical care is equivalent to school shootings as evidence against gun rights. You are more likely to be killed by lightning than you are to be killed in a school shooting, and I suspect that you are even less likely to experience an eight-hour delay in ambulance service. The cold-blooded reaction of the ambulance service spokesman (at the end of the piece) is just as typical for a privately run service afraid of a lawsuit as it is for a government run one.
I say this because my Canadien friend still think their national health care is better based on his experience. (He lives in St. Louis for the music, not the health care.) We need something stronger than individual experience to make our case against socialism in health care. My position is that we should stop allowing employers to exempt health insurance costs from taxes, start allowing individuals to exempt them, and stop subsidizing other countries drugs. I am chagrined that I have no assistance beyond my meager opinions to offer, but you should be used to that by now.
Via Kim du Toit.
