Fighter ace sells medals

Telegraph reports One of the most decorated British fighter pilots of the Second World War has sold his medals, diaries and other memorabilia partly to pay for a hip replacement operation for his wife who faced at least a six-month wait on the National Health Service.

I hope people who favor universal government run health care like they have in Britain will take note of this.

Sqn Ldr Neville Duke, 83, the Royal Air Force's top-scoring ace in the Mediterranean theatre who set a world air speed record of 728 mph in 1953, put the collection up for auction rather than subject his wife Gwen to months of pain and discomfort while she waited for an operation. The standard waiting time for hip replacements in the orthopaedic department at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, one of the nearest facilities to the Dukes' home, is six months. Mrs Duke, who has been in pain with her hip for eight months, was told by her chiropractor that the wait might be 15 months.

The way government run health care systems restrict costs is by making people wait. Hopefully some of them will die, and then they can save the money that would have been spent. Whether it is 6 months, 8 months, or 15 months, would you want to wait?

Before the sale Mrs Duke, 85, explained: "It is very likely I will need a new hip and that is something we just cannot afford. If I went on a NHS waiting list I would have to wait forever, and at my age that's no good.

Americans may go into Canada to buy prescription drugs, but Canadians come down into the US to get needed operations they would have to wait for in Canada.