Before going on Sean Hannity’s "Great American Panel" on Fox News a few weeks ago, I was waiting in the "green room" before the live broadcast. While waiting to go on set, I had the privilege of meeting Daniel Hannan, a British Member of the European Parliament who had just finished a TV interview himself. For those of you who don’t know, this is not a Member of the traditional British Parliament. Countries that are part of the European Union (EU) are able to send delegates to the European Parliament in Brussells, Belgium, where the 27 member countries decide what the EU will do and not do.
Anyway, he asked about President Obama’s socialized medicine plan and what might become of it. After we discussed that for a minute, he gave me a few facts about the socialized medicine plan in Britain, known as the National Health Service:
1. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is the 3rd largest employer in the world, behind only the Chinese Red Army and the Indian National Railroad.
2. They have 1.4 MILLION EMPLOYEES in a country with less than a third of the population of the United States. This begs the question, how big would the American NHS be?
3. Among those employees, there are more people with the title of "manager" than there are actual doctors.
4. More than half of NHS employees are purely administrative and have nothing to do with being a nurse, doctor, technician, or otherwise dispensing care to patients.
In other words, Britain’s socialized medicine system is enormously inefficient, wasteful, and costly. This is part of the reason why Britons have seen higher costs and the rationing of care. Should we be surprised? Is it really any different than a big DMV or a LA Unifed School District?
And this is the system that president Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and the vast majority of Democrats in Congress want to emulate!!!! This is nuts.
This Member of the European Parliament became quite well known for his speech denouncing the economic practices of Gordon Brown’s Labor government in Britain. This speech has received over 2 million hits, and I have included it below. Watch it and you will see why:
August 13th, 2009 at 12:00 am
You are sitting in the doctor’s office wearing one of those paper modesty smocks. Your a little chilly. Your worried about your test results.
In walks a burly unkept Acorn representative who informs you to dress and report for mandatory end of life counseling at the local bowling alley.
Your heart drops….is it a mistake..is it because I have grey hair?
Hmmm….Messiah Care?