Giuliani on Socialized Medicine
Rudolph Giuliani made a great point about the perils of socialized medicine: "My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine."
Republicans need to keep hammering these points home.
From last Saturday here at LMM: Britons Forced Abroad For Medical Care.
posted by Laura @ 11:20 PM
2 Comments:
The UK National Office of Statistics point out that the real figure is 74.4% and even Mr Giuliani's source accepts his data is 'crude' and 'seven years out of date'.
I think America does need to have a serious debate about healthcare but if you are going to use data about survival rates, it should at least be accurate.
Incidentally, don't you think it is weird how evey other developed industrialized nation in the world has 'socialized medicine'?
Maybe it is because there is a belief that being civilised requires a society where we do not let people die because they cannot afford insurance.
If Giuliani's data is "seven years out of date"...well, it was accurate at the time that Mr. Giuliani was fighting cancer around 6 years ago, right?
"don't you think it is weird how evey other developed industrialized nation in the world has 'socialized medicine'?"
Yes, I do think it's weird...that so many are willing to give up so much *freedom*, plus high quality care, in return for so little.
"Letting people die because they cannot afford insurance" is a myth...here in the U.S. there are government "safety net" programs which take care of those (including those who aren't even citizens) who can't pay for their own insurance.
Socialized medicine leads to countless problems, including a lack of incentive or financial ability to invest in research for new medicines and techniques, or for the best and brightest to go into medicine. England, for example, is forced to import doctors from other countries. Canada is so lacking in staff that it's having to export high-risk births to be handled in the U.S. (What will they do if the U.S. goes to socialized medicine?) And I could go on!
Best wishes,
Laura
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