ADVENTURES IN GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE – AT 8:13 P.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerts us to this report on the wonders of government health care in Britain.  Seems there are a couple of problems.  From London's Daily Mail:

More than 500,000 patients every year are readmitted to hospital after apparently being sent home too soon, alarming figures reveal.

Labour's waiting-time targets have been blamed for the 50 per cent rise in emergency readmissions of patients within days of them being discharged.

Critics said it was a scandal that almost 1,500 a day were apparently being released before they are well enough, harming their recovery.

When politics runs a medical system, that's what happens.  Welcome to the future...if the Obamans get their way.

They say the targets put pressure on hospitals to discharge people early to free up beds and have turned the National Health Service into a 'revolving door'.

Elderly patients are particularly vulnerable if they are sent home too soon, charities warned. There are also fears hospitals are trying to cash in from being paid twice to treat the same patient.

What?  What?  You mean hospitals can act dishonestly?  You mean a single-payer system isn't paradise?  Why, in the new order there will be a ban on disturbing articles like this.

But, if you're in Britain, it may be a good idea to look in on grandma after she's been released from the hospital.  Just make sure they've disconnected the tubes.

And this is what some in the American elite would like here.

February 1, 2010