AND NOW FOR THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE – AT 8:18 A.M. ET:  The leftist Democrats do indeed love the socialized health plans of Britain, Europe and Canada, as long as they personally have an alternative.  Those plans are so cozy, so warm, so inclusive and multicultural.  They are also failures.  London's Daily Mail reports on what may well be the American future:

Up to 20,000 people have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the National Health Service (NHS), it was revealed yesterday.

The rationing body NICE has failed to keep a promise to make more life-extending drugs available.

Treatments used widely in the U.S. and Europe have been rejected on grounds of cost-effectiveness, yet patients and their loved ones have seen the NHS waste astronomical sums.

Last week it emerged that £21billion - a fifth of the entire annual budget - was spent on failed schemes to tackle inequality.

NICE, the National Institute of health and Clinical Excellence, promised a year ago to make it easier for drugs for rarer cancers to be approved.

But since then four drugs which could have benefited 16,000 people have been turned down outright and a further six which could have helped 4,000 more have been provisionally rejected.
Just five drugs have been accepted - benefiting 8,500 people - says a damning report by the Rarer Cancers Forum. Drugs for rarer forms of cancer are often much more expensive than those for common tumours because pharmaceutical companies cannot make economies of scale.

COMMENT:  Ask the relatives of Britain's deceased victims what they think of the National Health Service. 

Can this happen here?  Of course it can.  If a private insurance company can deny a claim, imagine what a powerful government entity can do, especially one kept in business by a political party. 

And wait 'til the elderly are told that they must die because increased attention must be given to "the children," the usual line, especially children in groups that will vote reliably Democratic. 

March 15, 2010