Low Health Care Ranking Debunked

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

John Stossel takes a look under the hood of the WHO study that Michael Moore and so many others make so much of when they push for socialized medicine, and finds, in his words, "less than meets the eye".

So what's wrong with the WHO and Commonwealth Fund studies? Let me count the ways.

The WHO judged a country's quality of health on life expectancy. But that's a lousy measure of a health-care system. Many things that cause premature death have nothing do with medical care. We have far more fatal transportation accidents than other countries. That's not a health-care problem.

Similarly, our homicide rate is 10 times higher than in the U.K., eight times higher than in France, and five times greater than in Canada.

When you adjust for these "fatal injury" rates, U.S. life expectancy is actually higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation.
Unsurprisingly, the study also skewed its results through a criterion it called "fairness", which basically gave points for government interference in the medical sector -- a category in which our nation should strive mightily for last place.

And Stossel's not done yet. He closes with this teaser: "Next week: the truth about the Commonwealth Fund study." Stay tuned.

-- CAV

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gus, I'm glad you pointed to this article. Brings back a few memories from the days I used to argue against online socialists.

Whenever you told them to consider the fact that the quality of life in any country is directly proportional to the degree of freedom that its citizens have, they always pointed to these "studies" that somehow found a way to make life in CUBA more appealing that life in the United States.

I, for one, always wondered why they did not just pack their bags and swim across the sea. :)

Gus Van Horn said...

But if they did that, there would be nobody left here to help deliver us from the maw of capitalism and our atrocious health-care system!

Uh-huh.

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Silly me! I always suspected they just didn't really believe in what they were parroting. Turns out they really do have a good reason - an altruistic one, to boot!

Gus Van Horn said...

Perhaps we, consistent with our principles, could start a private charity to reward those poor, noble souls for their efforts by flying them to such places as Cuba for medical treatment when they need it.

That would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak!

Anonymous said...

You, sir, are a genius.
A hilarious genius!

P.S: I think that rhymed.

Anonymous said...

Backlinitude for you, Gus!