Waiting for Death

Let’s hear it for the latest socialized medicine success!

QUEENSLAND’S Government has been accused of forcing more than 100,000 people to languish on “secret” waiting lists for surgery at hospitals statewide.

Documents tendered to the Morris inquiry today revealed 108,571 patients in July last year were yet to receive an outpatients appointment, to determine if they should be placed on official surgical waiting lists.

Premier Peter Beattie today denied his government had covered up the true number of patients seeking surgery at the state’s public hospitals.

Mr Beattie said it was “dishonest” and “unfair” to compare official waiting lists to the 108,571 patients seeking appointments because many of them would not need surgery.

He also said he “stood by everything he said”, relating to his previous comments the Government enjoyed the lowest surgical waiting lists in Australia.

“It’s like comparing apples and oranges ... there have been no inconsistencies in what I have said,” Mr Beattie told state parliament.

Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said it was highly likely the majority of people waiting to see an outpatient doctor would require surgery.
Mr Springborg also alleged the Government had sought to conceal the unofficial waiting lists by taking them to Cabinet, preventing disclosure through Freedom of Information laws, and also refusing to regularly audit such patients.

“It’s true the premier says that many people won’t need to see a surgeon because they’ll be needing to see an undertaker they will be waiting for so long,” Mr Springborg said.

I don’t know why people are surprised by this.  Economics 101: shortages are a function of price, not supply.  When you have “free” medical care you remove the price aspect, therefore you have a shortage of care.  We’ve seen the same story time and time and time again in all the major socialized medicine systems.  The goal is to give everyone everything they need, but in a world of scarce resources this is a utopian fantasy.  In a free market system price determines the allocation of scarce resources; in socialized systems it is bureaucrats using arbitrary rationale.

As I said the other day, in the US people will receive the treatment they need, but they’ll go bankrupt because of it.  In these “compassionate” socialized healthcare systems nobody goes bankrupt due to medical bills, because they die on waiting lists for treatment.  Pick your poison.