Do We Really Want National Health Care?

Today a young woman named Jade Goody died of cervical cancer at the age of 27. Certainly a personal tragedy to her family, and because of her fame, a national one for the United Kingdom. Her story shines a light on one corner of the darkness of nationalized health care.

Here in the United States, it is recommended that young women get tested for cervical cancer by the age of 21 or within three years of their first sexual intercourse if younger. The test is commonly known as a pap smear. This is because cervical cancer happens to be one of those that can be detected very early, and if treated is very survivable. It is quite common for teenage girls to get pap smears.

Things are quite different under the National Health Care systems in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.. In most of the United Kingdom, women CANNOT get a pap smear until the age of 20, and since 2003, in England until the age of 25. When confronted about it, British NHS officials bragged that in other parts of Europe women have to wait until the age of 30 to get a pap smear.

Next factor in the fact that here in the United States it is recommended that women receive a pap smear every year until at least the age of 30 and three consecutive clear smears, at which point they recommend every three years until the age of 70.

In the UK they only provide pap smears every three years between the age of 25 and 49, and then every five years until the age of 64.

Early detection is vital in curing cervical cancer. In fact in countries without access to pap smears, cervical cancer is a leading cause of death among women.

When do you want your daughters, sisters, mothers and wives to have their first pap smears? How often do you want to get them? Do you want some government bureaucrat telling you that you cannot get tested? This is just one small fragment of the tragedy of nationalized health care. Imagine this spread across the whole medical realm.

Remember this when the Left starts extolling the benefits of nationalized health care and just say no.