Wow. Busy day what with the front page article in the New York Times and some very savvy reporting in the Wall Street Journal. Who said August was going to be slow? Talk about a food fight at recess!
All that to say that the window seems to be somewhat open to actually discussing the … facts! I know, who would ever have thunk it.
Taking advantage of this new opportunity, I’ve penned a new op-ed on the Reuters “Great Debate” site. Here’s a taste:
“In SiCKO, Michael Moore portrayed the British National Health Service and the Canadian health system as particular exemplars of excellence. He backed it up with a lot of statistics, but statistics, as the saying goes, are like a bathing suit. What they show you is interesting, but what they conceal is essential.
And what SiCKO concealed was that systems such as those in the
Citizens of countries with government-run health care systems experience long wait times, a lack of access to certain treatments and, in many instances, substandard medical care. For example:
• The five-year survival rate for early diagnosed breast cancer patients in
• A typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007, an all-time high, according to The Fraser Institute.
• The average wait time for bypass surgery in
• More than half of Canadian adults (56 percent) sought routine or ongoing care in 2005. Of these, one in six said they have trouble getting routine care.
• Eighty-five percent of doctors in Canada agree private insurance for health services already covered under Medicare would result in shorter wait times.
• Approximately 875,000 Canadians are on waiting lists for medical treatment.
If we’re going to look to other healthcare models for solutions, we must uncover and study their problems. Health care is too important to allow reform by sound bite. “Drugs from
The complete op-ed can be found here.
