Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Lessons from a Presidential bypass operation
[Michael Cannon, "Clinton Got Quick Care, Unlike Canadian Heart Patients," The Cato Institute, 8 September 2004.]
This latest column from Cato's Michael Cannon explains how a recent news item shows why America's health care is better left to the private sector:
According to Nadeem Esmail and Michael Walker of Canada's Fraser Institute, the median wait for an appointment with a cardiologist in Canada's single-payer health care system was 3.4 weeks in 2003. The wait for urgent bypass surgery was another 2.1 weeks on top of that, while the wait for elective bypass surgery was an additional 10.7 weeks. Canadian doctors reported a "reasonable" wait would be 0.9 and 6.1 weeks, respectively. Great Britain and New Zealand have even longer waiting times for bypass surgery.
Esmail and Walker cite studies confirming that longer waits for heart surgery result in a higher risk of heart attack and death.
In fact, they report American hospitals act as a "safety valve" for Canadian patients who face life-threatening shortages: "The government of British Columbia contracted Washington State hospitals to perform some 200 operations in 1989 following public dismay over the 6-month waiting list for cardiac bypass surgery in the province... A California heart-surgery centre has even advertised its services in a Vancouver newspaper."
Had America had followed his lead ten years ago, President Clinton might not have been able to get his diagnosis and surgery appointment so quickly.
Instead of waiting overnight for an appointment with a cardiologist, he might have had to wait the 3.4 weeks Canadians do.
Instead of waiting three days for quadruple bypass surgery, he might have had to wait over two weeks.
Instead of receiving care from what Senator Clinton called "one of the great hospitals in the world," President Clinton might be looking for a safety valve.
Since the Clinton health plan was defeated, untold patients have been aided because America's health care system, whatever its faults, was not subjected to the shortages and waiting lines that plague other nations.
But the future is less certain. Democratic presidential candidate Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) is aggressively promoting his $1 trillion health care plan that borrows heavily from the Clinton health plan. Senator Kerry too seems to believe that having government issue a paper guarantee of "coverage" is the same thing as having access to medical care.
Truth be told, presidents and senators will never have a hard time getting medical treatment. Esmail and Walker report "a profusion of recent research reveals that cardiovascular surgery queues are routinely jumped by the famous and politically-connected." It's the rest who have to wait. Despite the Canadian government's egalitarian rhetoric, "low-income Canadians have less access to specialists, particularly cardiovascular ones, and have lower cardiovascular and cancer survival rates than their higher-income neighbours."
I join all Americans of good will in wishing President Clinton a speedy recovery. And I hope they will join me in wishing Senator Kerry's health plan a quick, painless death.
[Matthew Hisrich, "A Better Alternative to Kerry Plan Already Exists," The Topeka Capital-Journal, 8 August 2004.]
[Michael Cannon, "Clinton Got Quick Care, Unlike Canadian Heart Patients," The Cato Institute, 8 September 2004.]
This latest column from Cato's Michael Cannon explains how a recent news item shows why America's health care is better left to the private sector:
According to Nadeem Esmail and Michael Walker of Canada's Fraser Institute, the median wait for an appointment with a cardiologist in Canada's single-payer health care system was 3.4 weeks in 2003. The wait for urgent bypass surgery was another 2.1 weeks on top of that, while the wait for elective bypass surgery was an additional 10.7 weeks. Canadian doctors reported a "reasonable" wait would be 0.9 and 6.1 weeks, respectively. Great Britain and New Zealand have even longer waiting times for bypass surgery.
Esmail and Walker cite studies confirming that longer waits for heart surgery result in a higher risk of heart attack and death.
In fact, they report American hospitals act as a "safety valve" for Canadian patients who face life-threatening shortages: "The government of British Columbia contracted Washington State hospitals to perform some 200 operations in 1989 following public dismay over the 6-month waiting list for cardiac bypass surgery in the province... A California heart-surgery centre has even advertised its services in a Vancouver newspaper."
Had America had followed his lead ten years ago, President Clinton might not have been able to get his diagnosis and surgery appointment so quickly.
Instead of waiting overnight for an appointment with a cardiologist, he might have had to wait the 3.4 weeks Canadians do.
Instead of waiting three days for quadruple bypass surgery, he might have had to wait over two weeks.
Instead of receiving care from what Senator Clinton called "one of the great hospitals in the world," President Clinton might be looking for a safety valve.
Since the Clinton health plan was defeated, untold patients have been aided because America's health care system, whatever its faults, was not subjected to the shortages and waiting lines that plague other nations.
But the future is less certain. Democratic presidential candidate Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) is aggressively promoting his $1 trillion health care plan that borrows heavily from the Clinton health plan. Senator Kerry too seems to believe that having government issue a paper guarantee of "coverage" is the same thing as having access to medical care.
Truth be told, presidents and senators will never have a hard time getting medical treatment. Esmail and Walker report "a profusion of recent research reveals that cardiovascular surgery queues are routinely jumped by the famous and politically-connected." It's the rest who have to wait. Despite the Canadian government's egalitarian rhetoric, "low-income Canadians have less access to specialists, particularly cardiovascular ones, and have lower cardiovascular and cancer survival rates than their higher-income neighbours."
I join all Americans of good will in wishing President Clinton a speedy recovery. And I hope they will join me in wishing Senator Kerry's health plan a quick, painless death.
[Matthew Hisrich, "A Better Alternative to Kerry Plan Already Exists," The Topeka Capital-Journal, 8 August 2004.]
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