Some folks are just deemed unworthy of care under such systems.

Doctors in Britain regularly discriminate against older patients by denying them tests and treatments they offer to younger people, research shows today.

GPs, heart specialists and doctors who care for the elderly were all found to be influenced by a patient's age when making their recommendations -and older doctors were more likely to discriminate than younger doctors.

The study in Quality and Safety in Health Care, a specialist publication from the British Medical Journal, found that half of doctors in each of the professional groups treated elderly patients differently.

The researchers compared the responses of doctors to people aged under 65 and over 65. They pointed out that 65 was no longer regarded as being particularly old in British society.

Prof Ann Bowling, of the department of psychology, at University College London, led the study. She said: "Resources are limited and doctors have to make difficult decisions. Maybe they have run out of options and are using age as an excuse.

"When we spoke to the doctors they were quite ready to justify their reasons. They may see older people as less deserving," she said.

The truly alarming thing is that the referrals, tests, and procedures denied to these hypothetical patients are what we in country would consider to be routine care, not extraordinary measures – things like angiograms and angioplasty, or even cholesterol medications. Do we really wish to import such flaws into the best medical system in the world?

And on a related note, Dr. Walter Williams offers some other negatives about socialized medicine in his column today.

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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