One of the world�s most celebrated socialized medical systems is doing what
socialized medical systems do: limiting patient care. Pending work stoppages
could mean that the worst is yet to come for patients of England�s National
Health Service.

For obvious reasons, American politicians seeking an even greater federal
role in U.S. health care avoid discussing the staggering privations under
Marxist regimes in places like Cuba and Venezuela. Instead, pols like Sen.
Bernie Sanders (socialist, Vt.) point to government-run health systems within
largely free, developed economies. But the U.K. is another example they�ll
want to avoid.

Josephine Franks reports for Sky News that senior doctors, called consultants
in Britain, will be joining their less experienced colleagues in withholding
treatment:

Consultants and junior doctors are set to strike for several more days
this week and early next month, bringing more chaos to the NHS after
several months of walkouts and delayed appointments...

A health chief said the NHS is in �uncharted territory� due to the
strikes, with thousands of patient appointments expected to be
cancelled.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said this
week�s strike action �can�t become the status quo�.

Sadly it can. If there�s one brutal lesson of government-run health care it�s
that things can always get worse. Turning doctors into unionized government
bureaucrats brings a host of problems, including the fact that politicians,
not patients, decide what doctors are paid. This is of course a problem in
the U.S. as well. England is a sort of preview of just how badly government
management can mangle the incentives to provide medical services�and the duty
to provide care. Ms. Franks continues:

On the picket lines of the March strike, junior doctors told Sky News
why they were striking and described having to borrow money off family
for medical exams, watching colleagues leave for better paid jobs abroad
and how they were struggling to pay rent.

If anyone asks Mr. Sanders to comment, no doubt he will rail about the
British government not spending enough, just as his answer to every question
about U.S. health care involves a greater burden on taxpayers and fewer free
choices for consumers.

But adopting the Sanders model for decades in the U.K. has led to a system
that is now in constant crisis, with a plague of cancelled appointments and
procedures. Jane Kirby reports in the Independent that �the NHS
Confederation, which represents all NHS organisations, said increasing
numbers of patients, including cancer patients, are seeing their appointments
rescheduled more than once due to strikes.� Ms. Kirby adds:

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the organisation, said: �This is
likely to be the biggest walkout the NHS has ever seen, will cause
serious disruption, and put patients at the highest level of risk in
living memory...�

Don�t say you weren�t warned.

--
Q: Why is ObamaCare like a turd?
A: You have to pass it to see what's in it.