In my latest piece for the American Spectator I describe Great Britain’s NHS, the socialized medical system about which President Obama’s CMS pick has quite literally said, “I love it”:
The health care system about which Dr. Berwick is so vocally ‘romantic’ has been an unmitigated disaster for the average Briton. The NHS, the good doctor’s paeans notwithstanding, is a third-world operation that employs Soviet-style central planning to produce terrible care and worse outcomes.
The NHS is the worst medical system in the developed world—far worse than the Canadian system. Anyone who thinks it is a good model for health care delivery should be kept far away from CMS.
For the gory details, read the complete article.
Comments 4
I see someone beat me to it at AmSpec but just to emphasise that making up stats such as the ridiculous 80% better survival for prostate cancer does not help your case. I see also that people are also noticing the far better performance of the NHS in treating conditions such as diabetes. And when you’re ready, do ask yourself if primary care is better in the US.
Posted 03 Jun 2010 at 6:51 am ¶OK, Marc, here are the numbers:
To put it in terms a “progressive� can understand: If you have 5 apples and add 4 more, you have increased your apples by 80%. Likewise, if your cancer survival rate is 51.1% and you increase it to 91.9%, you have gained 80%.
As to the commenter at AmSpec, his assertion that American and British men have “similar� prostate survival rates is preposterous. It isn’t supported by any credible study (which is why he hasn’t quoted his source).
Here’s a nice chart showing how your country stacks up:
Posted 03 Jun 2010 at 12:26 pm ¶David, I thought we’d got past this error in interpretation (the Gratzer/Giuliani mistake). Please allow me to make the following points as it’s important that correct information is posted.
1. You are confusing survival with mortality. I (and the person on AmSpec) made the point that mortality rates from prostate cancer are not widely different between the US and the UK. Indeed, as you’ll see that for all cancers from this table (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_dea_fro_can-health-death-from-cancer) the UK actually as the lowest death rate for cancer per 100,000 of the 16 nations listed, including the US.
2 And the key point is that what you are posting are (unsourced) out of date 5 year survival data. That is, the percent alive over 5 years after diagnosis. As you do know I’m sure, the US has a much higher rate of prostate screening that picks up many more cancers, many of which will never be life threatening. So the US 5 year survival rate is artificially high and in fact the latest US prostate screening study shows no benefit to screening. And the latest figure from England shows a 80% 5 year survival for prostate (see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=861), and where prostate cancer is picked up early we have a better than US rate of 98.5% 5 year survival - showing the NHS works very well but that it’s tough to get English men to see doctors.
So - I’m sure you don’t think that the figures you posted mean that American men are almost twice as likely not to die from prostate cancer, but I’m not sure what you do think they mean.
Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 12:54 pm ¶I’ll ignore the Giuliani red herring (you lost that argument 2 years ago) and it was your comrade (not yours truly) who introduced the mortality issue. I assumed he didn’t know the difference, but maybe he was just tossing in his own red herring.
In your last comment, you accused me of “making upâ€? up the 80% stat. Now you’re telling me that it’s merely “out of date.â€? You need to be more consistent with your calumnies. As to the tired “you guys do more screening” argument, it isn’t worth refuting (again).
Regarding your new stats, can we trust numbers from any agency serving a government notorious for fiddling data? A regime that will condone stacking patients in A&E parking lots to improve wait time stats would hardly stick at fudging these data.
Posted 04 Jun 2010 at 3:00 pm ¶Post a Comment