Great Britain Offers Cautionary Tale on Single Payer

First Charlie Gard and now Alfie Evans. These are babies who, though verbally silent, still gave clarion warnings to proponents of single-payer health care: The government — not my parents — is in charge of my life, and the government chose death.
Charlie Gard was born in August 2015 with a rare genetic disorder that carried a poor long-term prognosis. In July 2017, little Charlie was just 23 months of age and on a ventilator. Over the objections of his parents, British doctors decided to withdraw life-sustaining care. According to British Courts, the National Health Service (NHS), the country’s single-payer system, is the ultimate medical decision maker — not the family. Ventilator support was withdrawn and Charlie died.
Starting in March 2018, another 23-month old British baby hit the headlines. Alfie Evans was a comatose child whose NHS doctors said his condition was hopeless. They wanted to terminate life support, but the parents wanted to transfer their child to Rome’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital for further care. The British High Court ruled against the parents’ wishes, leaving Alfie’s fate to the NHS. As Justice-Baroness Hale wrote in Aintree v James: “we [referring to patients] cannot always have what we want.” On April 28, 2018, with ventilatory support withdrawn, Alfie died.
Read More: American Healthcare System
You can see Related blog on Tumblr: Affordable Health Insurance

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