American Healthcare Rocks!
There was a great commentary in Monday's WSJ about a new study that analyzed survival rates for several common types of cancer among 31 countries. Wouldn't you know it? American healthcare came out on top.
How can that be when other countries have universal healthcare? The answer is exactly what free market supporters have been saying all along: universal healthcare plans limit what care is available.
Take England as an example. Colon cancer survival rates are about 45% higher in the U.S. than in England, which has universal coverage. The reason is pretty obvious. In the U.S. screening for patients generally begins at age 50. And in the U.K.? Try age 75! Another study in 2000 estimated that about 20% of British lung cancer patients progressed from being curable to incurable while on the waiting list for treatment.
The article mentions that Brain tumors of the type that Sen. Kennedy has are often treated in the U.S. with a drug called Temodal. The British healthcare system uses a standards body called the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). From 2001 to 2007, NICE wouldn't allow Temodal to be used at all. In 2007 NICE decided to be a little kinder to people suffering from brain cancer. They decided that patients could use Temodal if they paid out of pocket not just for the Temodal but for their entire cancer care bill. The National Health Service has since ruled that if a patient opts out of the system for one type of care, they will be forced out of the entire system.
How exactly is that an appealing, just or humane healthcare system? It might be better described as a universal(ly deadly) healthcare system.
People generally mistake “universal” health care with [b]unrationed[/b] health care. It’s not. It’s just not rationed by price anymore…it’s rationed by government bureaucrats.
Can’t wait until going to the doctor is as much fun as visiting with the TSA.