What is Socialized Medicine Like?

With all the talk of Obamacare, many on the right are rallying around and shouting from the rooftops how Obamacare is socialized medicine, or at least the beginnings of it. On the left, we have people that believe that we need this as someone paying your medical bills is a natural right.

Left look at what socialized medicine can be like. From England:

Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care...Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.

Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust put government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care.

But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction

The inquiry found that: 

• Patients were left unwashed in their own filth for up to a month as nurses ignored their requests to use the toilet or change their sheets

• Four members of one family. including a new-born baby girl. died within 18 months after of blunders at the hospital

• Medics discharged patients hastily out of fear they risked being sacked for delaying


• Wards were left filthy with blood, discarded needles and used dressings while bullying managers made whistleblowers too frightened to come forward.


Look to the great white north, and we see that the premier of Newfoundland/Labrador, Danny Williams, went to the United States for a heart procedure. It seems the US does a minimally invasive procedure that he couldn't get in Canada, which would have required major surgery and possibly a delay in getting care. Mr. Williams paid for the procedure out of his pocket. He was one of the lucky ones. Many Canadians would have waited for weeks or months to have a procedure that is cutting edge, if they made it that far.

Obama wants these types of systems. He looks to Europe as an example of what is right in the world, what is just, a fabian socialists view that looks at the general public no different that a farmer looks at livestock on his farm. We are no more than farm animals to Mr. Obama, and the farm should be run by the government. In his own mind, he knows best. Who do you trust?

Thank you for reading this blog.