This sickly'd isle

That England, that was wont to conquer others,  
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,  
How happy then were my ensuing death!

So, we were recently told that, Markets improve efficiency for lots of things, but healthcare clearly isn't one of them. Specifically;

And you want to tell me there are all these imperfections in the U.S. medical market, but the U.K. is pretty close to pure socialized medicine, with the providers being government employees. So the U.S. system is far more market-oriented than the U.K. system -- yet the U.S. system is more than twice as expensive. You want to compare imaginary market outcomes rather than look at what really happens in medical markets. 

Along comes Deutsche Welle to supply the proof to the fools;

"My husband was told he would have to wait three weeks for a doctor's appointment last year," says local Kath Goodwin. "At the time, he was severely clinically depressed and was talking about taking his own life."

Another resident, Graham Hodgkiss, tells the meeting how he fell from a roof in 2013 and can now walk only with the aid of crutches. After two years on a waiting list with his health and mobility further deteriorating, he has just been told he must wait a further six months for an operation.

Reese Williams, a local musician, shares the story of how he found an abscess a year ago, and called his doctor in panic. "I was waiting over an hour and had to redial 22 times just to get through," he says. Later, he was left with open wounds that required daily dressing - but was left without treatment for several days.

The stories continue. Penny Rutherford speaks out: she was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and has undergone extensive chemotherapy, but says she can't now get a doctors' appointment within three weeks when related conditions flare up. "They say I'm not a priority, and they can only see emergency cases," she says.

 The National Health Service, where they get what they pay for.