March 16, 2007

Evidence on Government-Run Health Systems Mounts

The latest indications show that where government controls the health care system, patients needlessly suffer.

• A March 3 column in the Chicago Sun-Times by Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner cites evidence showing government-controlled systems leaving patients waiting long periods for care.
   
• As the 2008 presidential campaign gets off to an early start, it's important that American voters pay close attention to the health care remedy each presidential candidate is advocating.

When the waiting time to see a doctor gets so long you end up performing your own medical treatment, you know there's a serious problem with government-run health care.  This is apparently not a rare situation in such countries.

• The average wait in Canada between a referral to a specialist and seeing a specialist is 18 weeks – "the longest ever recorded in Canada," the Sun-Times piece said.
   
• Japan's government underpayment of its doctors has led to a shortage of cancer specialists.  This in a country where cancer is the chief cause of Japanese death and cancer rates are going up.
   
• One poor Briton, William Kelly, couldn't get a dentist appointment for six years – the National Health Service waits were so long. When the pain became unbearable, Mr. Kelly pulled his own bad tooth.
   
• British pharmacies sell a popular kit called "Do It Yourself Dentistry." Socialized medicine in Great Britain underpays providers, causing 2,000 dentists to leave the NHS last year.

Some American candidates for president have outlined health care plans.  Voters would be wise to read the fine print on candidates' health care proposals.  Ideas have consequences, whether the ideas are good or bad.

• British government-run health care keeps costs down by underpaying doctors and providers. This can lead to too few practitioners.  Tight government control over medical services only adds to the length of delays in obtaining care.
   
• Socialized medical systems can result in other harmful consequences. British dentists, for example, are paid on a per-patient basis.  Thus, they earn more for simple tooth extractions than for time-consuming root canals, and may schedule patients accordingly.
   
• Some health reform proposals in this country have skated dangerously close to the government-centric, bureaucratically micromanaged flaws that characterize European national health systems.  This at a time when the Swiss have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed single-payer, government-run health system.

In nations where the government centrally controls health care, their citizens are suffering more and more. The evidence points this out in Canada, European nations and Japan. American voters should be vigilant as they examine candidates' health care proposals.