the top ten myths of american health care
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The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide, is the latest book from health care scholar, and Pacific Research Institute President and CEO Sally C. Pipes. The book’s foreword is by Steve Forbes: For anyone interested in getting to the core of America’s health care troubles, this is the perfect book, he writes. And for health care policy makers, it should be required reading. In her 182-page book, Ms. Pipes takes on ten popular myths about the state of health care in America. The final chapter lays out several patient-centered prescriptions for reform……..
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2009-08-30
By P Turet (Norfolk, VA)
I just read the first “Myth” so I’ll respond to that (you can dis me for posting a review not having read the whole book if you like, but “The Simpson’s” was on so I had to put it down). The thesis of the first myth appears to be a classic case of attribution error. An effect is seen (disparity of health outcome), a predictor is posited (differences in national healthcare delivery systems), and a conclusion is drawn (national Euro-Canadian style healthcare “doesn’t work”). Pipes gives references in the first chapter to an article in The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, to support her claim that survival for many types of cancer is superior in the US to survival in the aforementioned Euro-Canadian systems. Not wanting to spend the $31.50 to read the Lancet article on-line, I went to the W.H.O. statistics, also cited in Pipes work. In the section entitled “Age-standardized mortality rate for cancer (per 100 000 population)” I find that Ms Pipes is indeed correct, mortality rates for all cancers is lower in the US than in Italy, Norway, Canada, France, UK. But looking up the table we see that the three top entries (lowest mortality rate for all cancers) are Uzbekistan, Guyana, and Mexico. Haiti and El Salvador also beat US handily. I don’t know about you but I’m going to hold off on booking my flight to Port-au-Prince for my next chemotherapy appointment. I’m giving the book (which is also available free on-line so save your money) three stars because I want to be fair since I’ve only read one-tenth of the book.
2009-05-13
By GeorgiaTex (Atlanta, Georgia)
I learned long ago to check the footnotes of any book that is heavily promoted on conservative radio talk shows. More times than not, the sources cited in the footnotes do not support the author’s conclusions. This certainly proved to be true in the case of this book.
Our current health care debate is a complex issue. There are strong and valid arguments to be made on both sides. But the whole point of the book is to provide cover to those who oppose universal health care in the United States. That is, the author will say, for exmple, that it’s just a “myth” that there are 46 million Americans without health insurance. According to her, the real number is closer to 8 million. Those who oppose universal health insurance can then cite to this book a “evidence” that there’s only 8 million or so Americans who don’t have access to affordable health insurance and therefore universal health insurance isn’t needed. In other words, the sole purpose of this book is to provide a ready source of favorable “facts” to be cited by those who wish to push a particular political agenda.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with that — unless your “facts” are made up, which proved to be the case in this book. For example, the book’s claim that there are only 8 million Americans without access to health insurance is based, to a large degree, on ONE survey done in 1997 which concluded that many people who were eligible for Medicaid or children’s health insuranc programs hadn’t signed up for those programs. The author then projects this 12-year-old survey out to today and claims it “proves” that at least 10 million poor Americans are just too lazy to sign up for government health insurance. That’s it. That’s her whole “evidence.”
Anyone who has followed the health insurance debate in any depth knows that the government has spent millions if not billions of dollars over the last decade signing people up for Medicaid and, in particular, children’s health insurance programs. Thus, there is not any reason to believe that the out-of-date study Ms. Pipes cites is the least bit relevant today. Yet, that’s her sole evidence on this issue.
She also cites a study saying that 38% of those without health insurance make over $50,000, and claims that “proves” that those folks could buy health insurance if they wanted to, but simply choose not to. This logic, of course, ignores the two primary reasons people support universal health insurance in the first place. First, millions of Americans are denied health insurance at any price because of “pre-existing conditions.” Second, the average health insurance premiums for a family of four si $12,700, which puts health insurance out of reach for millions of middle income Americans (even those making more than $50,000 per year.) Yet, Ms. Pipes ignores each of these facts and simply claims that the vast majority of uninsured Americans could get coverage if they wanted to but are simply too lazy or cheap to do so.
This type of shoddy resarch and illogical conclusions permeate the book. In other places, the author simply makes things up. For example, she claims that it is a “myth” that government health insurance is more efficient than private health insurance. She then cites a study showing that the administrative costs of private health insurance is “only” twice as high as that of government health insurance as proof that the universal health insurance advocates are overstating the efficiency of government run health insurance. But wait — the study she herself cited said just the opposite: that government health insurance is much more efficient than private health insurance. Yet, she claims this is a “myth.”
Again, health care reform is a complicated, important issue. Both sides have valid and compelling arguments. Yet those arguments must be based on actual facts. Sadly, this book doesn’t contain any.
2009-05-03
By George D. Tomes (Dallas Ga)
This is a comprehensive look at the American health care system. It clears up misconceptions about cost, government intervention, and acess to health care. Let’s look at the solutions list in this book and not let polititions ruin or health care for power.
2009-04-24
By Tiger Lily (USA)
This is the real story of why health care is so expensive and what really need to be done.
2009-04-02
By D. A. Bentley
A good book to read that counter’s a lot of liberals complaints and inaccuracies about our current health care system. She goes on to explain why we shouldn’t try to emulate Britain’s or Canada’s system and does a good job citing her claims which can be looked up and verified given some time (which I actually in some instances because I considered the claims unbelievable).
Ms. Pipes certainly has the credentials and we should certainly listen to what she has to say. She does a good job of breaking down this complex issue into simple reading.
As an added note, she lived under the Canadian health care systems and says it isn’t satisfactory for most American’s. Since I’ve never experienced this I’ll never know, but I’ll take her word for it.
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