British ObamaCare update: Postcode lottery

Government is an inefficient distributor of services, which is why no one should be surprised that a postcode lottery exists in Great Britain, which has had government-run health care for over sixty years.

Postcodes are the UK equivalent of our ZIP codes. Here's how their lottery works: The amount of care you receive, or whether you receive any at all, varies from one postcode to another.

Right Care has developed the NHS Atlas of Variation.

The Telegraph has more on the cartographic conundrum:

For the first time geographical differences have been drawn together into a series of 34 maps that the public can view online to see how well their region is performing.

It shows a 14-fold difference in spend on broken hips between best and worst areas; a four-fold variation in the proportion of stroke patients who spend almost all their hospital time in a dedicated stroke unit; and a 38-fold difference in rates of obesity surgery.

Some health authorities spent more than two-and-a-half times as much on mental health services, while there were similar differences in spend on inpatient cancer care.

Lord Howe, the Health Minister, welcomed publication of the atlas, saying: "In order to improve unwarranted variations in services, it is vital to expose existing flaws in the system."

This could be America in 2020.

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