While no sensible person would deny that American health care is in need of reform, the shrill tones with which the advocates of socialized medicine lament the “crisis” are seriously over the top. This phenomenon is typified by the film Sicko, which portrays a system in total meltdown. Michael Tanner responds to Moore and his fellow hysterics by pointing out that American health care is still the best in the world:
18 of the last 25 winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine either are U.S. citizens or work here. With no price controls, free-market U.S. medicine provides the incentives that lead to innovation breakthroughs in new drugs and other medical technologies.
And what have those incentives produced?
U.S. companies have developed half of all the major new medicines introduced worldwide over the past 20 years, and according to a survey by the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, Americans have played a key role in 80 percent of the most important medical advances of the past 30 years.
But what about that army of uninsured Americans that we keep reading about in the “news” media? Shouldn’t they get care?
In reality, most do. Hospitals are legally obligated to provide care regardless of ability to pay, and while physicians do not face the same legal requirements, few are willing to deny treatment because a patient lacks insurance.
It really does help to learn the facts. However, you can’t get them from advocacy groups with statist agendas. And you sure as hell can’t get them from creatures like Michael Moore.
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