The Crowbar

For all you Universal Heath Care lovers out there, here’s a dose of the medicine you want to force everyone to take; from a UK’s DailyMail:

Despite the fact that around half a million children and adults in the UK are affected, treatment for the condition is woefully underfunded, according to the National Autistic Society (NAS). ‘The services and support available to people with autism and their carers are often hugely inadequate,’ says Caroline Hattersley of the charity.

The family wanted an official diagnosis, but were astonished to find [an Autism diagnosis] could take between 18 and 24 months because health services are so overstretched.

Crikey, 18 to 24 months? And, this is not just ANY family, this is the family of wealthy singer/actor Keith Duffy (Boyzone), his daughter, Mia, has Autism:

For Lisa and Keith Duffy, it was a heartbreakingly long wait before they heard their daughter Mia speak for the first time… Mia has autism, a developmental disorder which affects her ability to relate to people and situations.

Ahh, but that’s not all, here we have another example of just how crappy socialized medicine is in the UK, Parents Forced To Wait A Year For Autism Diagnosis:

Health boards have been branded “compassionless” for forcing hundreds of parents to wait a YEAR to find out if their children have autism. Experts say the earlier children are treated, the better they will respond. But NHS Dumfries and Galloway have Scotland’s longest waiting time of 15 months for 61 children who have been referred for assessment. In Ayrshire & Arran, youngsters face waiting up to 14 months, while 100 kids are caught up in a year-long backlog in NHS Lanarkshire. Greater Glasgow is next on the list, with a waiting time of 10 months for more than 80 children. Bill Welsh, president of the Autism Treatment Trust, said: “Early diagnosis is absolutely vital. Taking a year to make a diagnosis is crassly inefficient and compassionless. “The worry aside, the child may be inhibited from gaining communication skills they should learn at an early age.” Evelyn and Iain Lindsay face waiting until next year to discover if their son Ben suffers from autism. They have been told that three-year-old Ben is 87th on the list. Evelyn said: “We are being left in limbo.”

This is the promise of Universal Heath Care, coming soon to America, to be left in limbo while faceless bureaucrats decide everyone’s fate. But, hey, at least everyone will be covered, right?