Japan has a national health care system. It works so phenomenally well, that a 69-year old bicyclist who collided with a motorcycle was rejected from 14 hospitals yesterday.

What good is national health care, if the hospitals won’t admit the sick or injured?

More than 14,000 emergency patients were rejected at least three times by Japanese hospitals before getting treatment in 2007, according to the latest government survey. In the worst case, a woman in her 70s with a breathing problem was rejected 49 times in Tokyo.

The AP is reporting that recent events like those described above, have put the spotlight on Japan’s “shortage of doctors.” Pity,Japan’s bureaucrats don’t understand the fundamental and immutable laws of economics, one of which dictates that price ceilings result in shortages.