September 21, 2003

A story like this shows how insidious union rules become and how the spirit of red tape and regulation dehumanize health care. They can claim what ever they want but the entire affair is completely shameful. My own aged father, a former British subject, needs to be picked up from time to time too. But ironically he is picked up by by sister or brother-in-law or (privately employed) German nurses who are paid for with Yankee dollars. So that is Britain in the 21st century....a nice play to visit but you wouldn't want to live there....I can't help but wondering where were the children? Folks of that age should not live alone any longer but in fact many couples try to stay independent until the very last moment.

Here in the US the VA and military health care systems are grim foreshadows of what socialized medicine can be like. Of the many horror stories I've heard, the worst is my next door neighbor who had a relatively minor knee injury expand to, finally, amputation. Before they got there, however, he had a knee fuzion which resulted in his back being compressed so now he not only had a false leg but bad, and severly painful, back. Yeah, just what we need, socialized medicine.