These Times Demand the (London) Times

In Canada, according to the Fraser Institute, patients seeking specialized treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007. Approximately 875,000 Canadians are on waiting lists for treatment.

A 1997 study in Health Policy found that whereas the average wait time for bypass surgery in New York State was 17 days, it was 72 days in the Netherlands and 59 days in Sweden.

In Britain, the government’s cost-effectiveness agency just announced that patients can’t rely on the National Health Service to save their lives if the cost of doing so is too high.

This is the reality in government-run health care systems, as they focus more on saving money than on saving lives. That’s why citizens experience long wait times, a lack of access to certain treatments, and substandard medical care.

Consider this new op-ed from Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The (London) Times.

First consider the title: "We need cancer drug rationing."

And then some selected paragraphs:

“Rationing is never a popular exercise, and never more so than in medicine. The idea that the NHS is universal and free has become so deeply ingrained that nobody is happy when it denies treatments on grounds of expense.”

“As knowledge of the molecular and genetic mechanisms of disease increases, this situation is likely to worsen. More and more treatments will become available. Some will be personalised for a small group of patients and will thus be expensive because the market is limited. Others may extend life only for a short period and will offer poor value for money on the NICE model. Some will have to be rejected for NHS use, even though they work.”

“At present, this means in practice that most patients are refused them altogether.”

And now over to the other Times, the New York Times -- America's "newspaper of record."

In his August 11th column, Paul Krugman states that “in principle, it should be easy” for the Democrats to deliver on their promise to “provide every American access to affordable, comprehensive health care.”   

It sure hasn’t been easy for the countries that have tried.