AUSTIN – Texas patients face the prospect of longer wait times for medical procedures, inadequate and outdated medical equipment, and markedly higher mortality rates if the U.S. Congress follows through on its plans for a government-run health care system, according to a new report released today by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The report, “Nationalized Health Care: Cure Worse than the Disease,” compiles data on medical outcomes in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union. Among the findings:
* Five-year cancer survival rates for American women are seven points higher than the European Union average, while such rates are 19 points higher for American men; * British women have nearly twice the breast cancer mortality rate as American women, while British men are three times as likely to die from prostate cancer; * Patients in Britain’s National Health Service are more than seven times as likely to wait at least four months for a non-emergency surgical procedure; and * Advanced diagnostic technology such as MRI machines and CT scanners are much more readily accessible to American patients than those in Britain or Canada.
“The evidence clearly shows that countries with nationalized health care systems engage in medical rationing and have poor medical outcomes compared to the United States,” said TPPF health care policy analyst Elizabeth Young. “Our Congress should not follow countries like Britain and Canada down the path of poorer quality of care, decreased access to treatment, and increased costs.”
Elizabeth Young is a policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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