Come the Revolution

You'll die in a toilet. Via Insty, a look behind the curtain of Socialized Medicine:

A woman died in labour in a hospital lavatory after her induction was delayed because of a lack of specialist staff, an inquest was told yesterday.

You can almost hear the bien pensants muttering mistakes were made - where they'd be sharpening the pitchforks if this had been Kaiser Permanente. What they miss is that this happens over and over again:

Having lived in the UK, I can only explain American liberal's support for government health care as being driven by ignorance. The UK press is simply full of this sort of thing, like the time a woman gave birth in a hospital restroom, and the nurses refused to help her:

I first saw this in the Times (Baby's birth and death in lavatory of hospital with no trained staff), but there is a considerably more detailed account in This Is London (Mother forced to give birth alone in toilet of 'flagship' NHS hospital) (A very similar account appeared in the Daily Mail.)

Never happen here.

Really? Is our government less risk adverse than the UK government? More willing to delegate authority down the chain of command? Less inclined to mutter mistakes were made as they turn their faces away from a government-created mess? More willing to create a process loop that continually improves the product?

When the tax code is hopelessly complex and entangling, the powerful and well connected don't have to pay. When government takes over your health care, don't expect the same standard of care that Congress will get. It's worth more to the Department of Health to take care of them.

You and me? Well, mistakes were made.