Brilliant Analysis of "Socialized" Medicine

I met Laurie Penny earlier this year while she was visiting New York City. She is just as brilliant in person as in print. I fell over laughing when I read her take on British health care at The Huffington Post:

My partner suffers from a joint disorder which requires regular operations, paid for by the British NHS. His most recent procedure was performed without anaesthetic by a drunken surgeon wielding a rusty hacksaw. As I forced a mouldy rag between his teeth to stop him screaming, an official wearing Nazi insignia burst in and informed us that limbs were not considered an NHS spending priority, so dirty chisels were employed to remove both his legs and one of his arms. My partner is now a triple amputee, and I am forced to prostitute myself for heroin to numb the pain of living in an Orwellian super-state. God save the Queen.

This decidedly made-up story is hardly more ridiculous than the lies that Republicans have been peddling about the NHS all week.

The rest is very serious and wise and required reading. (I would only add that if she were to fall pregnant tomorrow, NHS would offer her support for bringing the pregnancy to term, as she notes, or for terminating it.) Great job!