"Free" health care flaws. (Correction, Please!).

Item: Gordon Brown, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, unveiled a crash 40 billion pound program of "investment" in the National Health Service, reported The Guardian for April 18th. "Taking a massive political gamble that voters will see real benefits in the quality of the NHS before the next election, Mr. Brown said his aim was to 'make our NHS the best insurance policy in the world,' [adding that] "it was a 'chance in a generation' to bring the NHS up to world standards."

CORRECTION: Getting something for nothing may be popular in principle, but those who have experienced British socialized medicine know otherwise. One recent poll revealed that a meager 7 percent think extra taxes will result in a change for the better in the NHS.

Skepticism is in order. The death toll in British public hospitals caused by medical errors, some 1,200, was five times higher in 2000 than in 1990, according to the Audit Commission. Of course, care is not "free," but rationed -- which is how demand is controlled without market discipline.

Treatment lines are prolonged with a million Britons on a waiting list at any given time. Of that total, perhaps 155,000 get to see a doctor within four weeks, reports the Adam Smith Institute. Of the remainder, 345,000 are seen within 13 weeks, a half-million wait even longer. Of the latter, a quarter-million must wait more than six months.

Doctors also find the situation dysfunctional. The British Medical Journal last year reported that one in four NHS general practitioners was "seriously considering leaving general practice." A British Medical Association study finds that most GPs in the NHS have between 1,500 and 2,000 patients, with more than a quarter having between 2,000 and 3,000 patients.