British Death Panel

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Single Payer: In Britain, where the public option is about all most patients get, a newborn has died because national guidelines recommend that the baby not be treated. Yet again, government care produces tragedy.


The mother, Sarah Capewell, reportedly begged doctors to save the baby, who was born 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy. But guidelines used by Britain's National Health Service say that babies born fewer than 22 weeks into a pregnancy should not be treated.

The doctors told her to consider her early labor a miscarriage, not a birth, even though, according to Capewell, the boy, whom she named Jayden, was breathing, had a heartbeat and lived for nearly two hours without medical support.

Denial of treatment is not mandatory. But this part of Britain's government health care system proved to be deadly. The don't-treat guidelines were created by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which, in this case, served as a death panel.

Across the Atlantic, this country is embroiled in a bitter debate over the future of health care. Will Washington force the nation toward a state-run system like the one found in Britain? Or will nothing change?

But those are not the right questions. The only question that should be asked is: How fast can Washington move to give Americans full control over their health care decisions?

Victims of the British system, such as Capewell and Jayden, have little say-so over their health care. Britons can buy private insurance, and they can be treated at private hospitals. But having paid for government care through their taxes, few choose to pay again for the private options. Only about 11% purchase supplemental coverage, and private clinics and hospitals are not common.

This leaves most of the country under the care of the NHS. And that, too often, is not a safe or healthy place to be. That's not to say that treatment is dispensed by medieval barbers. But care in Britain is marked by cruel waiting lists, lethal bureaucratic interference and Third World conditions.

If a government takes over individuals' duty to care for themselves, it had better provide top-flight treatment. The record, though, shows in a deeply painful way that the state can't deliver.
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If you folks really believe that Obamacare (even a co-op) isn't going to ultimately lead to this kind of stuff than they really are delusional and probably drank the kool-aide.