Reader Recommendation: "Affordable" Health Care

Thanks for this suggestion to read economist Walter Williams' article "Affordable Health Care." The article points out that socialized medicine schemes in other countries have turned out very poorly. It recognizes some of the following shortcomings:

In Canada, the average waiting time for treatment by a specialist is between 5 and 40 weeks. The average wait time for an MRI or CT is 4 to 28 weeks.

One out of three Canadian physicians refer patients to the United States and the Canadian government pays over one billion dollars for health care in the United States each year.

Great Britain's National Health Services has a goal of having a maximum wait time of 18 weeks for general practitioner services and diagnostic tests. Many people in both Canada and Great Britain have illnesses that become incurable due to lack of care during long waits.

Great Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown hopes to adopt a "presumed consent" that would essentially make the bodies of Britons property of the state. The plan makes every citizen an organ donor at the time of their death, unless they carry a card or have family at hand at the time of death that state otherwise.

Rusty Scalpel