The Washington Times article, linked in the Hot Air posting, says, “But Mr. Coburn traced the problem to bad management and lax working standards, not to lack of money.”

This is not a price problem. As with Canadian and UK healthcare, this is a management problem.

When healthcare, or almost anything, is centrally controlled and centrally financed then the consumer’s needs are hardly considered. Notice how students are still hungry after eating an “Obama Lunch” (to coin a phrase).

Medicare “controls costs” but end up driving providers away from treating Medicare patients. Sure, the cost was controlled, but the treatment is hard to get.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the patient was allowed to decide whether an expensive treatment was worth the cost. Now the government is allowed to say that the treatment is never worth the cost, and the patient is left to pound sand, or when government does think it may be worth the cost then you are stuck on a (secret?) waiting list, and care is delayed — possibly until it is too late for the treatment to work.

So, which would you prefer? Sell your house and live, or pass your house to your heirs.

Oops, the government does not give you that choice; you have to pass your house to your heirs. And all because of centralized control.

From the manufacturing of medical goods to the education of medical professionals.

The government just can’t pay the asked for price for everything, they need to control the costs of everything first. Like education and so on.