Quote of the Day: Dalrymple on Government-Run Health Care

The good doctor Theodore Dalrymple has a few observations based on his experience with the British health care system. Here's one of them:

. . . the U.K. is by far the most unpleasant country in which to be ill in the Western world. Even Greeks living in Britain return home for medical treatment if they are physically able to do so.

The government-run health-care system—which in the U.K. is believed to be the necessary institutional corollary to an inalienable right to health care—has pauperized the entire population. This is not to say that in every last case the treatment is bad: A pauper may be well or badly treated, according to the inclination, temperament and abilities of those providing the treatment. But a pauper must accept what he is given.

Oh, my! As usual, the best medical advice is "Don't get sick."