"Death by queueing": Single payer is Root Cause of VA Deaths

Deane Waldman  "The problem with the VA system is the system, a single-payer model. Newspaper headlines shrieked outrage over unconscionable wait times to see a doctor; inadequate operating rooms; and needed medicines not available. This should come as no surprise. That is the way single-payer systems work. That is the norm, not the exception.

"Look to our north for proof, to the single payer system in Canada. Fifteen years ago, a Canadian surgeon named Dr. Ciaran McNamee sued the Alberta Provincial government claiming that patients were dying needlessly, while waiting for authorized (but not funded) care. He had good hard medical data to back up his claim, showing that there were not enough operating rooms, too few nurses or doctors, and insufficient medicines, all due to a government budget allocation process. The phrase applied to these patients, equally appropriate for our veterans, was death-by-queueing."

Deane Waldman MD MBA -- “Dr. Deane”-- is author of The Cancer In Healthcare; Host of The Hidden Enemy Newsletter-&-Forum; member of the Board of Directors of the NM Health Insurance Exchange; Adjunct Scholar for the Rio Grande Foundation; and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, and Decision Science