Posted on 05/25/2004 10:18:52 PM PDT by Pikamax
Swedish PM to wait in line for hip operation 25 May 2004 16:50:45 GMT
STOCKHOLM, May 25 (Reuters) - Even the prime minister has to wait in line in equality-conscious Sweden.
Goran Persson needs a hip replacement operation. But in a country famed for its cradle-to-grave welfare state and where politicians see themselves as ordinary folk, the leader of the ruling Social Democratic party won't go private.
"I'm counting that this will be managed through public healthcare. I would be very surprised if not," Persson told reporters on Tuesday.
Swedes are likely to applaud their leader, whose party pledges "people before markets" in its campaign poster for next month's European Parliament elections.
"Right now I'm in quite a lot of pain, but that's not the fault of the health system," Persson told reporters reluctantly after initially saying his health was a private matter.
Longer waiting lists and increasing charges for state healthcare have become a source of complaint in recent years among a population that pays some of the world's highest taxes.
Persson said the 1-1/2 hour operation would be carried out before Christmas.
Mister Prime Minister, dude, grab a cheap ticket on the Internet to my little podunk town and the local docs'll have you dancing by Christmas. It ought to cost about what you pay in taxes...for a month...
If his party pledges "people before markets", wouldn't the PM's pain mean that he should get immediate surgery by a free-market surgeon? Or do they really mean "people with no markets"? People make markets. Markets don't exist without people. Two people with needs and resources constitute a market.
/john
Lim-ping over to the Swedish Ping List.
Longer waiting lists and increasing charges for state healthcare have become a source of complaint in recent years among a population that pays some of the world's highest taxes.
Persson said the 1-1/2 hour operation would be carried out before Christmas
Oh yeah, that socialized medicine is just wonderful. You may have to be in terrible pain, but when they finally do get around to you....it's free.
Think about it, how much more will the operation cost in the long run when you add up all the oxycontin he has to take before he gets to the operating room ...
Let's talk after the operation, eh, Goran?
He might be "in pain," but he's in no real danger, thus it pays politically for him to make a public show of "waiting in line like the little people." I bet if he was told he had a cancerous tumor that would kill him by Christmas, he'd be on the next flight to New York under an assumed name.
Yes, and think of what it will cost to get him off the oxycontin, and what the hearing loss is going to cost....oh wait.....they won't do anything about that.
Oh heck, just raise taxes some more.
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