File under - Knock me over with a feather

I know no one saw this coming (Oh wait, maybe she did); but there is an article in the Telegraph that gives the result of an independent study on wait times for Her Majesty's Subjects that says in part (emphasis mine):

Health service trusts are "imposing pain and inconvenience" by making patients wait longer than necessary, in some cases as long as four months, the study found.

Executives believe the delays mean some people will remove themselves from lists "either by dying or by paying for their own treatment" claims the report, by an independent watchdog that advises the NHS.

Now, I know that they didn't call them 'Death Panels' per se, but keep in mind these are the Brits we are talking about here. My guess is that they wouldn't use the same vulgar term we Yanks use. No, theirs would be something dignified like; the Mind the Wait panel or the Bloody Inconvenience Panel or my favorite, Keep a Stiff Upper Lip panel. Regardless, the end result is the same and, of course, will be over here once Obamacare gets into full swing.

I mean let's look at it logically. The current medical capacity in the US will not change. In other words medical facilities are not magically going to expand their capacities beyond where they are right now. Now, add upwards of 40 million more 'patrons' that were previously uninsured to the system. Then add the increased visits from existing insured (because now it's FREE!!). So now you have a situation where visits will go up (Demand) while capacity (Supply) stays the same and may even diminish given the number of physicians who now refuse to take on Medicare patients due to the unfairness of getting paid for their service. To answer this baffling question, let's jump in the wayback-machine, with Mr. Peabody, and return to Mr. Hutchinson's econ 101 class at good ol' Amarillo High -

Wowowowowowowo (ed. Note, this is our high tech sound effects) wowowowowowow:

Wow! It worked, there's Mr. Hutchinson at the head of the class with a supply and demand curve drawn on the chalk board. Perfect timing Mr. Peabody!

Mr. Hutchinson: "What would happen to the price of a product if Demand for the product goes up but the supply goes down? Mr. Spicoli?"

Spicoli: "Dude, like the price would totally have to go up, man."

Mr. Hutchinson: "Correct. Now, for extra credit, what would happen if the agency responsible for the distribution of said product had the ability arbitrarily set price below the market value; what happens then? Anybody? Bueller, Bueller???"

Bueller: "Mr. Hutchinson, there is like no way that could happen. I mean, who would be stupid enough to try that? Cuz if someone was dumb enough to do that there wouldn't be enough of the stuff to go around and you'd like have to have some kind'a, I don't know, panel. And that panel would have to decide who got what, kind'a like a death panel or something. But there's no way anybody'd be that stupid."

Well that's enough for today let's get back in the wayback machine. Wowowowowowowowowowow.


 

 
Nobody saw this coming?. Again - knock me over with a feather