I saw Ezekiel Emanuel on CNBC on Friday the 13th, talking about the current virus, and it reminded me of what he said in 2009 while pushing for Obamacare.

He says he doesn't intend deliberately to end his life at 75 but rather to cease accepting medical interventions at that point — nothing, that is, except pain relief or other palliatives. No colonoscopies, no cancer screening or treatment, no cardiac tests or surgeries. Not even antibiotics or flu shots.

When Ezekiel Emanuel was pushing for Obamacare in 2009, he essentially said people over 75 should stop accepting medical interventions, so why should we believe that other Democrats all of a sudden care? What they care about is the same thing they have cared about for the last four years: destroying Trump.

In Italy, they have a national health care system, the type that Bernie advocates and the type that most of the media and other Democrats want to move toward.

The quality of health care in Italy varies from region to region. In 2015, they rationed health care because of a financial crisis. Today, they are rationing health care, especially for the elderly, who are the ones mostly affected by the virus, because their system is overwhelmed. Central planners, it seems, who have all the power over health care in Italy and elsewhere, sometimes make "mistakes" in their planning.

Is that what we should shoot for?

The healthcare system in Italy is a regionally based national health service known as Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN). It provides universal coverage to citizens and residents, with public healthcare largely free of charge. Treatments which are covered by the public system and a small co-payment include tests, medications, surgeries during hospitalisation, family doctor visits and medical assistance provided by paediatricians and other specialists. Furthermore, medication, out-patient treatments, and dental treatments are also available. However, public healthcare facilities in Italy vary in terms of quality depending on the region.

In 2015, it experienced this:

Half of Italy 'rationing' health care due to economic crisis

Nearly 60% in southern Italy cutting back on medical spending

Now there's this:

Elderly Will Be Denied Intensive Care as Coronavirus Overwhelms Italy's National Health System, Experts Warn Rationing health care is nothing new in Italy and in fact has become an "established trend" in recent years amid an ongoing economic crisis that has strained government resources, including the government-run healthcare system. "In a context of grave shortage of medical resources, the allocation criteria need to guarantee that those patients with the highest chance of therapeutic success will retain access to intensive care. It's a matter of giving priority to 'the highest hope of life and survival,'" the health experts explain. "It may become necessary," they warn, "to establish an age limit for access to intensive care."

In England, they also ration, essentially picking and choosing who gets covered and for what. Is that what we want?

In France, the old were left to die in an August heat wave in 2003 because the health care ministers in its socialized system couldn't be bothered to come back from their vacations, and central planners dictated that doctors all go on vacation at the same time, too. They had this:

Although research established that heat waves represent a major threat for public health, France had no policy in place. Until the 2003 event, heat waves were a strongly underestimated risk in the French context, which partly explains the high number of victims.

It's amazing that these things keep happening when you put the government in charge of health care.

By contrast, airlines, which are not government-owned, year after year, manage to accommodate massive Thanksgiving and Christmas surges of customers in short periods of time, with no rationing.

Why should we believe that Democrats, who won't vote to give health care to children born alive in a botched abortion, would be more caring for old sick people who die from a virus?

Image credit: Paulo O via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.