Good News?

Or maybe great news, the WaPo somehow found the stones to publish criticism of Obama (re: his Virginia "town hall" meeting on health care):

In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for "tweets."

The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.

The most dramatic moment came from Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., who was near tears as she described for Obama her fragile health, including a recently discovered [kidney] tumor for which she cannot get treatment.

Woo-hoo. If you don't let him get away with stage managing and manipulation, there's not much left. This remarkable mania has been managed from the beginning; going all the way back to those first fainting victims at his rallies.

And regarding Debby Smith, has she run out of money? Or does she refuse to spend her own money for her health care? If she has no money left for health care, shouldn't Medicaid be taking care of her? There's a government run health delivery program - Medicaid. If it doesn't work, why should we expect that turning the entire industry over to the government would be any better?

Anyway, I'm skeptical of Debby's self reported health problems. She says her health prevents employment, but she volunteers for Obama. Legislation by anecdote is dangerous. Remember that SCHIP example kid from Baltimore? Turns out the kid went to a private school and the family wasn't undergoing financial hardship. If Debby Smith does have serious health issues, I'm sorry, but history says that this is most likely smoke and mirrors.

And regardless, under our present system, you have many treatments available. Under the NHS, you get:

Thousands of kidney cancer patients are likely to lose out on life-prolonging drugs.

The NHS rationing body, NICE, has confirmed a ban on three out of four new treatments.

It has reversed its position on just one, Sutent, which will now be allowed for patients with advanced cancer. But campaigners who fought NICE's original blanket ban said this was not enough. They said some patients with heart problems cannot tolerate Sutent.

Kate Spall, head of the Pamela Northcott Fund campaign group, said the ruling meant that fewer than half of newly diagnosed patients would be eligible for therapy.

How many anecdotes can you get from that group of patients?

Mark Levine has a good list of NHS and Canadian system shortcomings here.