Government Bottling of Health Care

(Columbus, Ohio) One might liken government-run health care to bottled health care where lower-level bureaucrats, I'll call Smiths, control the cork. Smiths will decide when to cork the health care bottle, when to remove the cork and when to use the cork to throttle the flow of health care.

As an example, the government Smiths decided to cork the health care bottle in Columbus for a full work-week.

If you're looking to the city for a tuberculosis test, a shot for your baby or information on licensing that restaurant you've always wanted to open, today is not your day. Neither is Sept. 4, Oct. 9, Nov. 27 or Dec. 24.

Columbus Public Health will close up shop for five days this year to comply with a city mandate that employees take five unpaid days off to save money.

It made the most sense to shut down the services provided to the public for five days rather than to stagger employees' days off and leave clinics and other areas short-staffed on multiple days, said spokesman Jose Rodriguez.

Of course, there will be times when the Smiths throttle health care services due to limited resources. Typically, this is done by suspending certain medical functions and procedures for a defined period. Meanwhile, the public waits -- and waits.

Sadly, restricting health services and causing the public to wait has a significant downside. In Canada, while telling the patients to wait, the health care system also apologizes for their deaths - in the same computer-generated letter. At least the Canadian health care bureaucrats are efficient -- covering two equally-likely sets of circumstances with one piece of paper.

Fortunately, the Canadians have an alternative other than wait or die. They can travel to the United States for treatment. For now, that is.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.