November 15, 2007 4:22PM # Great Moments in Government-Run Health Care By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) --- SHARE People in the United Kingdom are pulling their own teeth with pliers, suffering on waiting lists, and enduring higher death rates from cancer, but the bureaucrats at the National Health Service are paying for “virginity repair” operations. Actually, the taxpayers are the ones financing this boondoggle. The *Evening Standard* [reports](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23421279-details/Women+get+'virginity+fix'+NHS+operations+in+Muslim-driven+trend/article.do): > Women are being given controversial “virginity repair” operations on the NHS, it emerged last night. Taxpayers funded 24 hymen replacement operations between 2005 and 2006, official figures revealed. …Tory health spokesman Mike Penning expressed concern. …”nobody would understand is if taxpayers’ money is being used to fund operations of this kind for cultural or cosmetic reasons.” Labour MP Ann Cryer said she was “absolutely horrified” to learn of the phenomenon. …“We have to also ask whether our National Health Service should be providing this sort of facility. I don’t think it should be available on the NHS.” The Department of Health said “certain cosmetic procedures” are available on the NHS “to secure physical or psychological health”. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).