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Advocates of government-run health care love to quote studies based on World Health Organization statistics. However, they have been strangely silent on a recent study discussed in this piece by Deroy Murdock:
Low-quality, taxpayer-funded health care killed more than 17,000 Britons in 2004, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance in London.
And that compares very badly to other European countries whose systems, not coincidentally, are (somewhat) more market-oriented:
The TPA examined the World Health Organization’s data to contrast the NHS with the Dutch, French, German and Spanish health systems, which are less government-dominated.
I have, of course, criticized excessive reliance on WHO statistics. But advocates of government-run health care swear by these data. Thus, the TPA study hangs them by their own petard:
While those four countries averaged a 106.6 amenable mortality rate, Britain was almost 29 percent deadlier, with its rate of 135.3.
Regardless of whether one takes WHO data seriously, it’s pretty clear that Perfidious Albion is (with apologies to Yeats) no country for sick men.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/77763/
I think this article will illuminate many people. Things are not as they sound. National “not for profit” healthcare, should be our goal in the U.S. And remember, we will have our own system, not Canadas, not Englands, we can take the best parts of all of them, and build our own.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
[…] NEEDS WHO? [February 29, 2008 @ 6:43 pm] David Catron As I mentioned a few days ago, the advocates of government-run health care love to quote World Health Organization […]
March 7th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
So, Mr Catron, spending 17% of GDP on our system, and getting only 80 to 85% of the people covered, that’s a good thing?? I have no clue as to your statisic and it’s meaning, except I think you are saying more people are killed by medical errors in England? I think you compared them to Germany didn’t you? How do they compare with the US? England, by the way, is trying healthcare on the cheap, they spend only 9% of their GDP. If I remember correctly, Germany spends 10%, France and the Swiss spend 11%.