by Tina Grazier
Ive always thought John Stossel was an excellent reporter. His dispassionate style and his relentless pursuit of facts and context make his reporting both reliable and interesting. I trust him, something thats quite rare these days.
Today his story, Another Bogus Report Card for U.S. Medical Care published at Real Clear Politics, reveals the flaws in a recent
doc_id=482678>report released by the “Commonwealth Fund” and references an earlier article that notes similar problems in a seven year old study by the “World Health Organization.”
The Commonwealth study asserts that the US system consistently underperforms when compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Great Britain and claims the reason is inadequate access to government healthcare: “The U.S. is the only country in the study without universal health insurance coverage, partly accounting for its poor performance on access, equity, and health outcomes.”
But Stossel wasnt satisfied with this statementor, perhaps I should say, he wasnt taken in:
I see. America “underperforms” because we don’t have enough government intervention.
But while the U.S. lost points for not having national health insurance, the authors added, “[I]f insured, patients in the U.S. have rapid access to specialized health care services.” *** That’s an understatement. Insured Americans have almost immediate access to cutting-edge procedures performed by some of the best-trained doctors. It’s why our outcomes for such diseases as prostate and breast cancer are markedly better than in Canada’s and Britain’s socialized systems. The Commonwealth Fund doesn’t mention that.
Stossel finds a number of other flaws in the left leaning Commonwealth report. No, he didnt call the organization left leaningI did, so whether you are right, left, or center politically, I urge you to read his articles.
Quality, choice and timely availability are important differences in the American healthcare system and we should fight to preserve those things as we work to discover the best ways to bring down costs. Solutions that our legislators come up with will have a profound effect on all Americans; its important we get it right. Adopting fixes based on mediocre systems with stories of long waiting lists, less innovation and sadly, some very bad outcomes would be highly undesirable. Try this:
Can we really say all people have adequate coverage in a universal system when that system causes waiting times that end in unnecessary pain, suffering and death? Surely, in this great nation, we can imagine and create something better.