Without Medicare and Medicaid your outcomes would be far worse. Even Captain Catron doesn’t advocate abolishing them.

http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2007/01/pfor3-0701.html

‘A 2003 study found that among the patients in Kentucky’s Cancer Registry (KCR) database, 31 percent of Medicaid and uninsured patients first presented with stage IV cancer, compared to 17 percent of those with private insurance and 22 percent of those with Medicare [5]. A look at the impact on survival of privately insured compared to uninsured prostate cancer patients showed that 98 percent and 83 percent respectively survived for 3 years; for breast cancer it was 91 percent, and 78 percent; for colorectal cancer, 71 percent and 53 percent; and for lung cancer, 23 percent and 13 percent. Another report showed that the adjusted risk of death four to seven years after diagnosis among breast cancer patients was 49 percent higher for the uninsured and 40 percent higher for Medicaid patients than for privately insured patients ‘

That would be the “black cloud” I predicted in the last paragraph of the post.

No, people dispute that we have the best overall healthcare in the world,or the best outcomes, which we don’t, mainly because of our dysfunctional, fragmented “system.” Can you point to somebody saying we don’t do a good job with high tech care or trauma or CABGs or cancer?

It is not the quality of the care that is actually given that is under attack, it is the lack of care given to those without the money to access the system. Or to those thrown out of the system when they can’t pay (go see Sicko for some curl-your-toes examples of that).

Do you see the debate from our point of view? America has the capacity to provide far and away the best healthcare in the world and it is a disgrace that we don’t because we would rather avoid the bogeyman of creeping socialism rather than making a societal choice to provide the best care we can for all of our citizens in an equitable way, regardless of ability to pay.

More from your link:
“Colorectal cancer incidence rates decreased by more than 2 percent per year for men and women, likely due to prevention through the removal of precancerous polyps,” the statement said. These polyps are removed during colonoscopies, which are recommended for everyone over the age of 50.

“Without additional funding, the chance to build on the extraordinary progress to date, and provide new treatments for 1.4 million Americans diagnosed with cancer every year, will be delayed or lost.”

Nixon’s war on cancer is paying off. The man who broought you the EPA as well. And he waa a conservative back in the day!

I heard a cancer researcher say on NPR today that only 50% of Americans have insurance that pays for most cancer screening, and that we would be doing even better in our overall cancer death rates if we could ensure better screening.

Cheers,

Oh, people dispute it all the time. In fact, the quality of American health care is under constant attack. One example (among many) can be found here.