Bill Hennessy
Here’s some facts about America’s healthcare that you won’t hear the President mention Wednesday. (From Scott Atlas, MD, of the Hoover Institute.)
Fact No. 1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers.[1] Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.
Fact No. 2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians.[2] Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher than in the United States.
Fact No. 3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries.[3] Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons and 17 percent of Italians receive them.
Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians.[4] Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer:
- Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
- Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.
- More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
- Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).
Fact No. 5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent). Conversely, white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as “fair or poor.”[5]
Fact No. 6: Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the U.K. Canadian and British patients wait about twice as long – sometimes more than a year – to see a specialist, to have elective surgery like hip replacements or to get radiation treatment for cancer.[6] All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada.[7] In England, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.[8]
Fact No. 7: People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70 percent of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British adults say their health system needs either “fundamental change” or “complete rebuilding.”[9]
Fact No. 8: Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians. When asked about their own health care instead of the “health care system,” more than half of Americans (51.3 percent) are very satisfied with their health care services, compared to only 41.5 percent of Canadians; a lower proportion of Americans are dissatisfied (6.8 percent) than Canadians (8.5 percent).[10]
Fact No. 9: Americans have much better access to important new technologies like medical imaging than patients in Canada or the U.K. Maligned as a waste by economists and policymakers naïve to actual medical practice, an overwhelming majority of leading American physicians identified computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the most important medical innovations for improving patient care during the previous decade.[11] [See the table.] The United States has 34 CT scanners per million Americans, compared to 12 in Canada and eight in Britain. The United States has nearly 27 MRI machines per million compared to about 6 per million in Canada and Britain.[12]
Fact No. 10: Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations.[13] The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single developed country.[14] Since the mid-1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to American residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined.[15] In only five of the past 34 years did a scientist living in America not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the United States.[16] [See the table.]
Conclusion. Despite serious challenges, such as escalating costs and the uninsured, the U.S. health care system compares favorably to those in other developed countries.
Tags: healthcareRelated posts
Jim Durbin of 24thstate.com summarizes one year of Tea Party activism. Moving and beautiful. How did we do so much in just one year? Congratulations. Thank you, Jim. I’ve embedded the video on all pages, but this deserves more.
Enjoy.
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Precinct Project at work taking GOP back from the timid.
via Tea Party’s ‘precinct project’ sparks GOP races.
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Just spoke to Congressman Akin. He is sponsoring a Healthcare Rally at St. Charles Convention Center (map, directions, parking) to house Healthcare Rally at 10:00 Wednesday, March 10.
Congressman Akin want us to set a FREEDOM-LOVING TONE for President Obama’s visit to raise money for Claire McCaskill from limousine liberals.
Let’s fill the auditorium and parking lot. Send Obama the message: KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY HEALTHCARE!!!!
Obama will be at the Renaissance downtown on Wednesday evening to raise money for Claire McCaskill and Russ Carnahan.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
DEVELOPING . . .
Tags: ACTION, healthcare, rally, Todd AkinRelated posts
President Obama will tell the American people that his opinion trumps their collective opinion tomorrow when he endorses the Nuclear Option in the Senate to force unwanted Step One of Socialize Medicine down our throats.
From ABC News:
He will call for an up or down vote, as has happened in the past, and though he won’t use the word reconciliation, he’ll make it clear that if they’re not given an up or down vote, Democrats will use the reconciliation rules.
Did we spend the entire month of August sweltering in Russ “Can’t Read” Carnahan’s SEIU love-fests for nothing?
NO!
We did it to lay the foundation for the most dramatic change in Congressional make-up since the first Congress convened on March 4, 1789. We did because “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation” from 100 or so Representatives and Senators, some of whom have never worked outside of government.
A growing list of candidates, mostly Republican and mostly closely allied with the Tea Party and 9-12 movements, are vowing to make repeal of ObamaCare their number one focus in 2011. That means, if a Tea Party Caucus forms in Washington next year, NOTHING GETS TO THE FLOOR before healthcare is repealed. (At least, that’s my interpretation of “number one priority.”)
So don’t get mad. Don’t say things you’ll regret. Just find a great candidate or candidates and do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get those people elected.
Tags: healthcare, nuclear option, ObamaCare, Reconciliation
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The government (Census Bureau, to be specific) reported yesterday that consumer spending rose 0.5 percent in January. The report was designed to give the White House’s failed economic policy some cover. But the number is bogus, and Mike Shedlock (Mish) explains precisely why: same store sales.
Government methodology for reporting retail sales is based on sampling stores in existence. It does not factor in stores not in existence but recently were. Nor does it handle closed stores when the chain is still doing business. Government reporting of retail sales is fatally flawed. To understand what is going on, all one has to look at actual tax data. Heard any rosy numbers from states about sales tax collections?
Say a neighborhood had 3 grocery stores last year. Two closed because of the recession, leaving one to serve, say 999 families. Even if each of those families buys only half what they did last year, the remaining store’s sales will show a 66 percent increase in same store sales. In reality, there was a 50 percent drop in spending, but the government can’t compute that.
Let’s go back to Mish’s state sales tax analysis. Mish points to New York, Indiana, Texas, and Tennessee. Each state shows a sharp decline in sales tax revenue year over year. People are spending less at fewer remaining stores, inflating the same store sales data.
Until merchants stop closing locations faster than they open new ones, the government will continue to overstate consumer spending.
Tags: consumer spending, economyRelated posts
David Cameron, very possibly Britain’s next Prime Minister, argues that the nature of government is about to change. Margaret Thatcher famously said that socialism inevitable depletes “other people’s money.” Cameron reports that it already has, pointing to cavernous public debt in the U.S., UK, and Europe as evidence.
But Cameron goes further than many U.S. politicians, approaching a top I like to discuss on the stump: the pursuit of happiness. In this TED talk, Cameron lays a sound foundation upon which we can build a conversation about making life better without government.
Some in the Tea Party movement will point out that we already know how to make a better world by reducing government’s role. Fine. We understand that. But many other don’t. We need to be able to describe that better world and paint a path to its door.
BONUS: Guess what he holds up to the world as the best example of government transparency?
Tags: Conservative Party, David Cameron, debt, governmentRelated posts
Happy Birthday, Tea Party: St. Louis supporters celebrate one year
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Here are the National Park rules for First Amendment demonstrations on the Arch grounds. Please read and comply on Saturday. These rules apply to all groups who use the grounds in order to express views under the First Amendment. They are not special rules for the Tea Party only. Please pay particular attention to items 1. and 5.
Item 1 pretty much limits us to megaphones as a means of voice amplification. We wish we could use a sound system, but we can’t. Having the speakers on the sidewalk at the BOTTOM of the steps, though, should help trap the sound.
Item 5 says no sticks or poles for signs or banners.
1. Any loud speaker being used must be so adjusted as to accommodate only those people in the immediate area. All audio enhancement equipment should be portable and battery-powered as there is no power available on park grounds. NO GENERATORS ARE ALLOWED ON PARK GROUNDS.
2. The selling of merchandise or commercial advertising is prohibited.
3. No temporary structures shall be erected. Nothing may be attached to park property (fences, trees, trash receptacles, etc.)
4. If any printed matter is distributed as part of your activity, the printed matter must be directly related to your event and must not contain any commercial advertising. Printed matter will be limited to message-bearing textual printed material such as books, pamphlets, magazines, and leaflets whose primary purpose is the advocacy, definition or explanation of a group’s or individual’s political, religious, scientific or moral beliefs.
5. Signs and banners must not be attached to sticks or poles. This provision is not intended to restrict the use of portable signs or banners as an expression of First Amendment rights. Banners or signs which are hand-carried are allowed; however, they may not be obscene or indecent in nature, and must not pose a danger to anyone else in the area.
6. Participants are to avoid language which infers an official connection with the National Park Service and its activities.
7. The area will be left in the same condition as found and all litter placed in the provided containers. Any park property damaged by, or as a result of the permit holder, will be replaced or repaired at the cost of the permit holder.
8. The permit is only for use of the specific area and time period designated on the permit. Issuance of the permit does not guarantee exclusive use of an area. The area for which the permit is issued will remain open to the public during the park’s visiting hours. Permit activities must not interfere with park visitors or programs.
9. The use of any device or prop that utilizes smoke or open flame is prohibited.
10. The National Park Service reserves the right to immediately revoke the permit at any time should this become necessary in the interest of public safety, public health, and general welfare.
11. The United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, will in no way be held responsible in the event of any personal injury, and/or loss of, or damage to, personal property during, or occurring from, the use of the area.
12. The permittee and all participants are required to comply with all applicable Federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, regulations, codes, permit requirements and conditions, as well as park regulations contained in Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The permit may be terminated upon breach of any of the conditions or at the discretion of the Superintendent. The permittee and all participants will comply with any instructions from the designated official representative of this office and similar instructions of the St. Louis City Police Department.
13. Good order and proper decorum shall be maintained by those persons conducting and participating in the activity and the group will leave the area at the conclusion time stated on the permit. It is prohibited for persons engaged in activities covered under the permit to obstruct or impede pedestrians or vehicles, or harass park visitors or misrepresent their purpose. Permittee must agree to maintain public access in the area (do not block entire sidewalks/steps/door entrances, etc, with people or equipment).
14. The provisions of 36 CFR Chapter 1 Section 2.51 is the authority used for administering permits for Public Assemblies. A copy of this regulation is available upon request.
15. Failure to comply with the provisions of the permit will result in its immediate revocation. Specific individuals failing to comply with the provisions herein will be prohibited from future participation in their activities at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
Hope to see you there on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Tags: Gateway Arch, National Park Service, Tea PartyRelated posts
Keith Olbermann, like most liberals, calls Tea Partiers “white racists” as easily as New Yorker’s call this winter cold.
Well, the good folks at the diverse Dallas Tea Party decided to compare their own racial and ethnic diversity with MSNBC’s. Guess who won?
Tags: dallas tea party, keith olbermann
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