A TALE OF GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  The House this week will decide whether to repeal, symbolically, Obamacare.  Repeal will never make it into law because of Dem control of the Senate and the president's veto pen, but House action will send a powerful message.

We certainly don't claim here that all government health care is bad.  There are some good programs in a number of countries, and credit should always be given where it's due.  But there are also too many horror stories that warn us about depending on one source for health care.  Consider this, from London's Telegraph:

It was a bitterly cold night in January when Geraldine Weller gave birth in the car park of a London hospital. Three hours earlier, the maternity unit had sent her away. Midwives who said they were short-staffed had confidently told her that it would be "ages yet" before she went into labour. They maintained that view even as her husband made frantic phone calls, reporting from their Surrey home that the baby's head could now be seen.
In desperation, the couple ignored advice to stay put and drove back to the hospital. With her husband shouting into the security cameras of the maternity unit for help, Mrs Weller stepped from the passenger seat. As she did so, she gave birth to their first child, catching the newborn in one leg of her pyjamas.

She says: "We just huddled together. My husband came back and wrapped Henry in a bath towel, and finally one of the nurses came out and said: 'What's this?' "

One year on, Mrs Weller (not her real name) has a healthy child and deeply traumatic memories of Britain's maternity services. She is not alone. Last month, a survey of 25,000 women who had children in England last winter found that more than one in five was left alone during childbirth at a point when it worried them.

Today, an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph discloses widespread fears among health professionals that maternity services are sliding into crisis, as small units close, and funding fails to keep up with a decade-long baby boom.

COMMENT:  A good health-care program, like any other service, should provide alternatives.  When there are no alternatives, stories like the one above are inevitable.

January 16, 201