to the question “Do we really want the government controlling our healthcare? They screw up everything else”

Cause the private sector has done such a fantastic job with healthcare so far– uhuh. And the Easter Bunny really does pop out candy-colored eggs every spring.

Twenty-five Kaiser Permanente patients in Northern California were denied the chance for new kidneys that were nearly perfectly matched to them last year during the troubled start-up of the giant HMO’s kidney transplant program in San Francisco, a Times investigation has found.

The Times reported Wednesday that Kaiser patients were imperiled by the massive start-up of the HMO’s first kidney transplant program, which now has a waiting list of more than 2,000. Since Kaiser took over, the number of transplants has plummeted. Patients have complained of inexplicable delays. And paperwork snafus have left hundreds of patients stuck between programs with no hope of receiving a life-saving organ.

But the government would be worse? Really, how? Being denied a perfectly matched kidney because your insurance company couldn’t pull its head out of its ass is better than what?