The best health care system in the world

The typical conservative critique of "socialized" medicine is that waiting times are longer in countries with state-run systems. Of course, what they're typically looking at is waiting times for elective surgery, not for emergency treatment. In state-run programs elective surgeries take a back seat to medically necessary treatments, and that's as it should be, I would think. But, somehow or other, our system always turns that on its head. Here's how the U.S. system works, from today's NY Times:

Patients seeking an appointment with a dermatologist to ask about a potentially cancerous mole have to wait substantially longer than those seeking Botox for wrinkles, a study published online yesterday by The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology said.

Researchers reported that dermatologists in 12 cities offered a typical wait of eight days for a cosmetic patient wanting Botox to smooth wrinkles, compared with a typical wait of 26 days for a patient requesting evaluation of a changing mole, a possible indicator of skin cancer.