ANOTHER REMINDER ABOUT THE BRITISH HEALTH SYSTEM – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:   As we move closer to implementation of Obamacare, brought to us by people who believe in nationalized health care, here is a reminder of what we might well face:

A former director of Britain's National Health Service, which runs the country's socialized medicine system, has died while waiting 9 months for an operation. The UK Daily Mail reports:

A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital.

Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.

But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

Her devastated husband, Jim, is now demanding answers from Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust - the organisation where his wife had served as a non-executive member of the board of directors.

COMMENT:   One of the curses of socialized medicine is long wait times.  And, since the centralized system has no competition, there's usually nowhere else to go...unless one is very rich and can fly abroad.  As usual, programs designed to help "the common people" wind up hurting them.

April 3, 2011