Doug Chase, a Vietnam veteran, died of brain cancer almost two years ago.  According to ABCNews, his wife Suzanne, in 2012, “attempted to move his care in Boston to a nearby veteran’s hospital in Bedford. She said they waited for four months with no reply” before Doug passed away.

It’s sad that the moral to this story can’t be “better late than never”:

Just two weeks ago, Chase received a letter from the VA finally responding to her appointment request.

“The letter invited him to make an appointment with primary care at the VA, if he so desired. Then at the bottom they said they wanted a quick response,” Chase told ABC’s Boston affiliate WCVB.

Perhaps the Chases can commiserate with the family of Brian Booy.  Booy lived in Bristol and was “covered” under the British National Health Service.  In 2000, BBC News reported:

When [Booy] died of a heart attack in January 1999 he had been waiting for triple heart by-pass surgery for 18 months.

Days before the first anniversary of his death, his widow Pat received a letter from Bristol Royal Infirmary’s cardiac unit saying that her husband could have the operation this Friday.

The revelation comes days after the cardiac unit’s clinical director Dr Peter Wilde said 10 patients may have died because they had to wait too long for operations.

A socialized system of medicine in this country has similar problems to those in a socialized system in another country. Must be a coincidence.