The Lesson of Charlie Gard

Tim Knowles
Jul 28, 2017 · 1 min read

What I learned from the news about Charlie Gard is that expecting something from the government comes with a price.

Britain provides all its people with single payer health care, something much desired in the U.S. In the British System you do not have control of your health care decisions, ultimately the System can decide to let you die. The system could probably decide to force treatment on you even if you don’t want the treatment.

Admittedly I do not know enough about the British Health Care System for me to be treated as an expert but what I see gives me pause. It also give me hope as this is not the first story about Single Payer Health Care Systems limiting Patients Options on treatment or rationing treatment or delaying treatment, etc. Government run health care, like many things the Government does, is unlikely to be excellent. VA health care is notoriously unpredictable, excellent some places and for some people and a total fatal fail in others.

Medicare for All does not seem to have the drawbacks that worry me but I worry that if we had Medicare for All it would ruin Medicare as the Bean Counters try to find ways to control costs. When taking care of the health of the citizens costs as much as protecting their freedom (Military Budget) the battle for shares of the budget will become more important than the Citizen’s Health Care Outcomes.

TEK

Tim Knowles

Written by

Worked in our nations space programs for more than 35 years

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