Whenever I write an article about the dangers of universal health care, I get the usual mantra from the socialist defenders of the plan. Two great examples taken from my Newsvine additions include:

• That is also an example of what is slightly wrong with the Briton system, not a reason for them to toss it all out…. Also note that as I have said, it is NOT a system that the US would model it self on for Universal Health Care.

and

• If you think that your HMO is more concerned for your health than your government is you’re nuts. The moment your HMO is making life or death decisions for you you are no longer +profitable. Government at least hopes to keep you alive for taxes and your vote.

One example I have used is the story of Colette Mills in Great Briton. She was battling cancer and needed Avastin to help with her treatment. The National Health Service denied her access to the drug, sentencing her to death.

Debbie Hirst has the same experience. When she wanted Avastin, she was also refused treatment.

As I have been told repeatedly by the glassy-eyed Obamatons, this could never happen here.

But it has already happened here. Introducing Barbara Wagner, cancer patient under Oregon’s Health Plan:

Last month, she found out that her lung cancer, which had been in remission for about two years, had come back. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that could slow the cancer growth and extend her life, Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.

The plan she pays her taxes for told her that they would not treat her, but they would kill her. I thought they cared about the taxes she paid, or the votes she cast. Sorry. They care about the bottom line. See, this plan was designed to ration health care.

When the Oregon Health Plan was established in 1994, it was expressly intended to ration health care. A prioritization list was drawn up, with diagnoses and ailments deemed most important — pregnancy, childbirth, preventive care for children — placed at the top of the list. At the bottom are procedures such as cosmetic surgery, which would not be covered.

“We can’t cover everything for everyone,” said Dr. Walter Shaffer, medical director of the state Division of Medical Assistance Programs, which administers the Oregon Health Plan.

“Taxpayer dollars are limited for publicly funded programs. We try to come up with polices that provide the most good for the most people.”

The advocates for government run health care never talk about this side of the subject. They never talk about government bureaucrats sitting in an office somewhere, deciding who lives and who dies, deciding who gets treatment that will save their life and who gets the death penalty.

What they tell you about is the evil corporations and Big Pharma. Well, when the system failed Barbara, it was the evil corporations who came to her rescue:

The story appears to be a happy ending for Barbara Wagner, who has been notified by a drug manufacturer that it will provide the expensive medication, estimated to cost $4,000 a month, for the first year and then allow her to apply for further treatment,

Don’t tell me the plan offered by Obama isn’t like this. It doesn’t matter. It will become this. Fear mongering? No. Reality. The plan offered by Obama is modeled after the one currently running in Massachusetts, the same plan that is running millions of dollars over budget :

With all the newly insured people coming into the system so rapidly, we are having trouble finding enough doctors to treat them, and we are having trouble finding the money to pay for it. In fact, some estimates show that the new law is under-funded by as much as $150-$200 million.

When the costs of this plan keep rising, you will eventually have shortages. After shortages come rationing. Then you have what you read above, only on a national scale. They will try to fix the problem by taking more of our property via taxes, but there will never be enough. Dr. Walter Shaffer is correct. They “can’t cover everything for everyone.” But the free market can. And there lies the solution.

But it requires government to do something it rarely does: remove itself.