My dear, sweet, 92 year-old aunt is dying. It's not exactly unexpected: her health has been failing for a while. Like her younger sister - my late mother - it's been a long, slow trajectory. Her daughters have been taking turns coming in to help her and my 95 year-old uncle, and as Passover approached, all three of them, their husbands and children, came in for a (presumably) final Seder.
It is at once gut-wrenching and hope-inspiring for me to experience this: my best half arranged for us to fly in last weekend for a final visit with our family matriarch.
You're probably thinking "that's touching, Henry, really; but what does that have to do with the Much Vaunted National Health System?"
Just this:
"When Kenneth Warden was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer, his hospital consultant sent him home to die, ruling that at 78 he was too old to treat."
Under MVNHS© guidelines, health care is free, but it's also rationed (but of course!). At 78 years young, Mr Warden was deemed too old to benefit from extended, expensive, even palliative care, and was thus denied it. Now, think about your own grandfather, or father.
Or self.
Fortunately, his daughter wasn't taking "no" for an answer, and arranged for private care for her beloved father. Thanks to her (and, of course, the private doc and presumably deep pockets), her father beat the cancer,
Yet here is the lesson: This is the very basis of ObamneyCare©. And do you really think, even for a moment, that those with the means (aka "cash") to pay for this care will be denied it?
Yeah, that's what I think, too.
[Hat Tip to co-blogger Nate and FoIB Peter K]
It is at once gut-wrenching and hope-inspiring for me to experience this: my best half arranged for us to fly in last weekend for a final visit with our family matriarch.
You're probably thinking "that's touching, Henry, really; but what does that have to do with the Much Vaunted National Health System?"
Just this:
"When Kenneth Warden was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer, his hospital consultant sent him home to die, ruling that at 78 he was too old to treat."
Under MVNHS© guidelines, health care is free, but it's also rationed (but of course!). At 78 years young, Mr Warden was deemed too old to benefit from extended, expensive, even palliative care, and was thus denied it. Now, think about your own grandfather, or father.
Or self.
Fortunately, his daughter wasn't taking "no" for an answer, and arranged for private care for her beloved father. Thanks to her (and, of course, the private doc and presumably deep pockets), her father beat the cancer,
Yet here is the lesson: This is the very basis of ObamneyCare©. And do you really think, even for a moment, that those with the means (aka "cash") to pay for this care will be denied it?
Yeah, that's what I think, too.
[Hat Tip to co-blogger Nate and FoIB Peter K]
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