Two articles to forward to Democrat acquaintances (probably not your friends) who favor government-run health care

I'll be polite, like Mish, and ask you to please consider:

• From the UK: 1,200 Needless Deaths: Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust [Hospital] 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... Indeed, some have either retired on lucrative pensions or have swiftly found new jobs...

• 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.

• From Canada: Canadian Legislator Goes to Miami for Heart Surgery: An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision...

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla... "I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

The 60-year-old Williams said doctors detected a heart murmur last spring and told him that one of his heart valves wasn't closing properly, creating a leakage... Williams said [U.S. doctors could make] an incision under his arm that didn't require any bone breakage [unlike the procedures required in Canada].

..."I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. ... I accept that. That's public life," he said... "(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that."

Not to worry, citizens. Democrats promise that government-run health care will work as flawlessly as their $840 billion Stimulus program.


Hat tip: Zero Hedge.