Could sanity be erupting?

Founded on a idealistic dream (like most utter disasters), on July 5th of 1948 Britain's National Health Service launched a hugely ambitious plan to bring good healthcare to all at the cost of abolishing provider independence.

Hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together under a single bureaucratic empire to provide services without charge to all, financed entirely from taxation.

Far more detailed histories of the NHS exist elsewhere, some even generous. However, practical experience combined with the logical inference where one scandal is reported, likely ten more exist, does not offer a particularly cheery outlook for those doomed to NHS care with its bureaucratic directives and jealously guarded petty empires.

With minimal research, we learn of a lady in 2008 denied treatment - because she'd had temerity to purchase prescriptions from a private source - and in 2001, wait times of up to 51 hours. Apparently, being able to afford better is an intolerable offense. In 2010, reports of at least 1200 needless deaths at Mid-Staffordshire hospital hit the headlines - and those were the obvious ones.

For a seemingly endless list, google "NHS Scandal". This, oh joy, is what we have awaiting us with ObamaCare if it is not repealed.

Meanwhile, in formerly Great Britain, after 63 years and driven by fiscal reality Ministers are beginning to nibble around the edges of the ungainly behemoth. Perhaps this is the first sign of a retreat from Britain's post-war descent into socialism and "communist-lite" policy and industry nationalizations.

Perhaps there is hope.