COMING TO A CLINIC NEAR YOU – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  For anyone who, in a moment of delirium, thinks socialized medicine is the answer to all our problems, think again.  From Britain's Guardian:

Doctors are blaming financial pressures on the NHS for an increase in the number of patients who are not being treated within the 18 weeks that the government recommends.

Eighteen weeks?  That's the recommended time?  How'd you like that for an American standard?

New NHS performance data reveal that the number of people in England who are being forced to wait more than 18 weeks has risen by 26% in the last year, while the number who had to wait longer than six months has shot up by 43%.

In March this year, 34,639 people, or 11% of the total, waited more than that time to receive inpatient treatment, compared with 27,534, or 8.3%, in March 2010 – an increase of 26% – Department of Health statistics show.

Similarly, in March this year some 11,243 patients who underwent treatment had waited for more than six months, compared with 7,841 in the same month in 2010 – a 43% rise.

Despite rising demand for healthcare caused by the increasingly elderly population and growing numbers of people with long-term conditions, the NHS treated 16,201 fewer people as inpatients in March 2011 compared to March 2010, the latest Referral To Treatment data disclose.

COMMENT:  And there are plenty of people around Obama – you know, the kind who spent their junior year abroad – who think the British system is just lovely.  So civilized.  So centralized.  How egalitarian.  The equality of mediocrity.

I'm afraid we'll be the next victims of this mentality unless Obamacare is repealed or substantially changed.

May 20, 2011