Sigh. Rationed health care for the baby boomers

We all know it, at least those of us who are watching. Here is a good essay about rationed health care.

If you want to see how you will die, you need no crystal ball. Just go to Europe. There you can get a glimpse of your future.

In Europe, governments already ration health care, just as Obama plans to do here. The older and sicker you are, the less care you get.

In England, for example, bureaucrats determine a patient’s eligibility for health care using the QALY system (quality-adjusted life years). They divide the cost of treatment by the number of “quality” years the patient is expected to live. Older, sicker patients are expected to live fewer “quality” years, so why bother treating them at all? On this basis, British elders are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses.

Many die in filthy, overcrowded hospitals or nursing homes, rife with pestilence, including the deadly, antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” Clostridium difficile and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Each year in the UK, nearly three times more people die from hospital infections than from traffic accidents.