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September 04, 2006
Free Health Care is a Fatal Notion
Although national health care may be the Holy Grail of American liberalism, Amy Ridenour of the National Center for Public Policy Research sees this model more as a poisoned chalice.
A better option would be for our government to adopted liability reform, interstate medical insurance sales, unhindered health savings accounts and other pro-market improvements.
It would be bad enough if a national health care system merely offered patients low-quality treatment. Even worse, Ridenour finds, it kills them:
- Breast cancer is fatal to 25 percent of its American victims; in Great Britain and New Zealand, both socialized-medicine havens, breast cancer kills 46 percent of women it strikes.
- Prostate cancer proves fatal to 19 percent of its American sufferers; in single-payer Canada, this ailment kills 25 percent of such men and eradicates 57 percent of their British counterparts.
- After major surgery, a 2003 British study found, 2.5 percent of American patients died in the hospital versus nearly 10 percent of similar Britons; seriously ill U.S. hospital patients die at one-seventh the pace of those in the United Kingdom.
In addition, medicrats often distribute resources based on politics rather than science, leaving a disorganized and inefficient system for many patients, says Ridenour:
- In usual circumstances, people over age 75 should not be accepted for treatment of end-state renal failure, according to New Zealand's official guidelines, unfortunately government controls kidney dialysis.
- According to a Populus survey, 98 percent of Britons want to reduce the time between diagnosis and treatment.
For all its problems, says Ridenour, the United States' more market-friendly health system offers patients better care and would deliver greater advancements if government adopted liability reform, interstate medical insurance sales, unhindered health savings accounts and other pro-market improvements.
Posted by Wiley Long at September 4, 2006 03:35 PM