Posted by
Catmman on Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:25:55 AM
In a foreshadowing of what is to come under Obamacare, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) - the government-run health care system - has decided a drug which could extend the lives of liver cancer patients is just too expensive for purchase by government health care patients:
A drug that can prolong the lives of patients with advanced liver
cancer has been rejected for use in the NHS in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
Read
the whole article.
For all the pontificating on the Left about how Americans need this, if the government gets control of health care it won't be about what Americans need (or want) anymore. It will simply be about what the government will give you. In that equation, your life won't matter, the quality of your life won't matter. All that will matter - to the Government at least - is cost.
What is particularly revealing in this story is the nature of the drug. It isn't a cure. It is a drug which simply extends the life of the patient. It allows people a few extra months with family and friends. It allows for people to have some closure and to adequately prepare for the end. It's about end-of-life care.
As has been argued, end-of-life care isn't a priority for the government. The government makes a determination that your going to die anyway and the extra time isn't worth the government expense. Your life will be reduced to a mathematical equation on a cost-benefit table.
That's what government run 'health-care' is all about.