Yet Another Reason to Thank the Founding Fathers - WSJ

Yet Another Reason to Thank the Founding Fathers - WSJ
"On July 4th Americans will celebrate 242 years of independence and the enduring success of a bold experiment in personal liberty. 
On July 5th the United Kingdom will remind Americans of one particular benefit of independence. 
Thursday will mark 70 years that English patients have tolerated a single-payer health-care system.
The website of the U.K.’s health bureaucracy is asking for applause:

The National Health Service is turning 70 on 5 July 2018. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate the achievements of one of the nation’s most loved institutions, to appreciate the vital role the service plays in our lives, and to recognise and thank the extraordinary NHS staff – the everyday heroes – who are there to guide, support and care for us, day in, day out.

It’s a particularly odd moment for self-congratulation, just as government investigators begin to collect evidence on what appears to be an appalling abuse of patients. 

This week the BBC reports:

A UK-wide inquiry into a contaminated blood scandal that left at least 2,400 people dead will look at whether there was a cover-up by the authorities and if documents were destroyed.

Treatments including blood transfusions infected thousands of patients with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s.

It has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

That last judgment could be open to debate. 
News of this investigation follows closely on the heels of another scandal involving the stunning misuse of pain medication. 
Last month London’s Mirror newspaper noted:

Relatives of patients who died in the Gosport hospital scandal... told of their fury over the needless and avoidable deaths and demanded a police investigation.

They spoke after a report revealed more than 650 were killed by overdoses of drugs over 11 years in one of the biggest scandals ever to hit the NHS...

...As America prepares to celebrate its independence, here’s hoping for health-care freedom for patients all around the world. 

Their health should no longer be subject to the decisions of politicians in London, Little Rock or anywhere else."

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