PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by Stan Alekna
John Shearer's recent letter stated that it was "morally wrong to oppose" socialized medicine in the U.S. What is morally wrong is for Shearer and Dr. Bill Davidson to either knowingly or unknowingly disguise or misrepresent the truth about the universal failure of single-payer, universal health-care systems.
Here are the current, irrefutable facts of the disaster that is socialized medicine along with the sources of the data, most of which are Canadian in origin.
The Fraser Institute, the only nationwide Canadian research organization that has gathered data on its health-care system for many years, reports that average wait time for all services has steadily increased and is now at 18 weeks. Shearer's pastor is dead wrong about wait times improving in Canada. Wait time to see a neurosurgeon is 31.7 weeks; 40.4 weeks to be treated by an orthopedic surgeon; an average of five weeks for cancer patients to receive radiation; 10.3 weeks to have an MRI; and 4.3 weeks for a CT scan. These and other terrible truths are available online at fraserinstitute.org.
Canada's medical equipment is in short supply; much of it is obsolete. On a per-capita basis, the United States has eight times more MRI units; seven times more radiation-therapy units; six times more lithotripsy units; and three times more open-heart units than Canada. There are more MRI scanners in Washington State (population 4.6 million) than in Canada (population 26 million). The National Center for Policy Analysis reports that, "The Canadian Association of Radiologists says that up to half of all radiology services in Canada ranging from ultrasounds to CAT scans could be shut down unless outdated and dangerous equipment is replaced immediately."
Survival rates of men and women with all forms of cancer is universally higher in the United States than Canada or England since the delays in diagnosing and treating cancer are universally longer than in our country. This data is contained in the largest-ever international study of cancer-survival rates, the Lancet Oncology 2007, No. 8; pages 784-796, and is available online. And a very recent study by the American Cancer Society places the five-year survival rate of U.S. men with prostate cancer at 99 percent versus those in the U.K. at 74 percent. This data is available on Google.
Using World Health Organization statistics from the infamous United Nations to portray infant morality and longevity as worse in the United States than other countries, and stating that one in three Americans do not have sufficient insurance as Davidson has done on several occasions borders on being spurious. If these numbers were anywhere close to the truth, the liberal media would be headlining them. To stoop to such depths to support the case for socialism betrays the shallowness of the arguments.
We have the finest health-care system in the world, and tens of thousands of foreigners come here every year for medical care they can't get at home. There is a booming business in Canada seeking out and scheduling needed care in the U.S. for those Canadians who can afford it but can't afford to wait.
I do not have the rich insurance coverage that federal and state employees or teachers and many others have. I am 71 and only have Medicare coverage and a supplement for which I pay 100 percent of the premiums. I am mainly concerned about preserving our excellent health-care delivery system. We certainly have some problems with our system, but they are known and they are fixable if only the various sectors that make up the parts of the system, including the providers, would stop blaming others and fix the problems in their own areas.
We need to eliminate state-mandated insurance benefits; reduce health insurance fraud; reduce medical malpractice; revoke licenses from repeated malpractice offenders; not allow providers who have lost their license in another state to be licensed in Pennsylvania; strongly enforce the reduction of medical and medication errors and introduce effective tort reform like was done in Texas.
If we did these things, the cost of health insurance for everyone could be reduced by 50 or more, and nearly all of those who want insurance could afford it. We could surely help the rest with Medicaid and other programs just as we do today. All of this could be accomplished while we continue to enjoy the highest standard of medical care in the world. This is the morally and financially sound course of action we should take while leaving the problems of socialized medicine to the socialists.
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Alekna of Cornwall is a former IBM executive and CEO of a Texas HMO and served on two statewide committees for the Texas Department of Insurance.
