Last week a sweet little boy named Charlie Gard died in England before he could reach his first birthday, and in spite of his parents’ tireless efforts to save him. Little Charlie died from extremely rare mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which afflicts only a handful of people in the world, but he also suffered at the hands of Britain’s socialized medical system. From the outset, Charlie’s parents wanted to bring him to America to seek an experimental treatment that may have been able to save their son’s life, but were denied by English courts that opportunity.

The sad story of Charlie Gard should serve as a cautionary tale of single payer medical care. The British National Health Service (NHS), which runs all medical facilities in England, is the template congressional Democrats have used as a basis for their own socialized medicine scheme. This ought to be worrisome to all Americans, as even British health officials are warning of the impending implosion of the NHS, and the human misery that it is inflicting. Alan Taman, who represents the doctors of the NHS told the UK Telegraph that “the NHS isn’t just creaking under the strain, it’s falling apart. The figures mirror a massive increase in human misery and anyone who sees them should hear the pain.”

Overcrowded and underfunded, British hospitals and clinics cannot provide quality care for its citizens. The result is that healthcare providers aren’t able to seek the patient’s highest good, but that which is expedient and cost-effective. This is the problem that expedited the death of Charlie Gard; the British NHS needed the bed, and they were not going to waste any more time on one chronically ill little boy. While Charlie was the world to his parents, he was just a number to the NHS. It is fair to say that, under a single payer system, hospital administrators have become a de facto death panel.

The warnings we are witnessing across the pond ought to prod feckless Republicans in Congress to act to repeal Obamacare. If Republicans fail to repeal it now, Obamacare will morph into a single-payer system like England’s. As the Democrat leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said last week: “Single payer is on the table” in the Democratic agenda. Little Charlie Gard’s parents saw America as the only healthcare system on Earth able to save their son, though a British court would not allow them to take him here for help. If Chuck Schumer and his party has their way, America will be no different than England, and our children will be equally mistreated and seen as state property.

Republicans get off your butts.