Can you really blame them? The woman was already over 65, and it's not like you can cure Alzheimer's anyway. If people aren't willing to make these kinds of tough sacrifices, how do they ever expect socialized medicine to work?

NHS Worcestershire ruled that Judith Roe, 74, did not qualify for NHS funding because her condition was a "social" rather than "health" problem, even though she was so ill she could not make a cup of tea and regularly left the stove on. She was forced to sell her £200,000 home to pay her £600-a-week nursing home fees, which would have been funded if she had been categorised correctly. Mrs Roe's family appealed to the Health Service Ombudsman, which ruled that Mrs Roe's assessment had been incorrect and her treatment should have been funded by the NHS...

Mrs Roe, a retired church warden and school teacher, was diagnosed in 2002 with severe Alzheimer's and Parkinsons. Under English law, elderly people must pay for their own residential care unless their needs are deemed health-related. She was assessed but her needs were regarded to be social rather than health, meaning she did not qualify for funding.

The Obama administration, by the by, has yet to appoint a Medicare chief. Because it's not like we could reduce health care costs by installing resposible agency heads to oversee health care organizations. Much better to go back to campaign tactics, bring out thugs to "drown out" concerned citizens, twist network arms to get press conferences on the air, and have MSM water carriers smear opponents.

References and previously after the jump...