Press release from LPHQ. Reposted to IPR by Paulie.
Government control of health care leads to higher death rates, research finds
WASHINGTON — America’s third largest party Tuesday blasted comments by White House chief economic advisor Lawrence Summers that Americans are getting too much health care and the government should begin rationing access to medical procedures.
“Decisions on medical care should be made by patient and his or her doctor, not by a government employee with a calculator figuring out whether treating your illness is in Washington’s fiscal interest,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director.
“Whether it’s tonsillectomies or hysterectomies…procedures are done three times as frequently [in some parts of the country than others] and there’s no benefit in terms of the right kind of cost-effectiveness, by making the right kind of investments and protection, some experts…estimate that we could take as much as $700 billion a year out of our health care system,” said Summers on “Meet the Press” Sunday, quoted in The Washington Times.
“Summers’ statement that Americans have too much health care, and it’s up to Barack Obama to cut off their access is chilling,” said Ferguson. “Even more disturbing is the White House’s view that private decisions on your medical care should be viewed as a government-run ‘investment.’”
“The same people who gave us Agent Orange, the IRS and the Hurricane Katrina response have no business making my doctor’s decisions for him.”
Despite assurances from the White House that rationing health care leads to better treatment, information from rationed health care systems tells a different story.
Among women diagnosed with breast cancer, only one fifth die in the United States, compared to one third in France and Germany, and almost half in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, Cato Institute scholar John Goodman finds, citing statistics from their national health care services. Goodman’s research finds among men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer, fewer than one fifth die in the United States, compared to one fourth in Canada, almost half in France, and more than half in the United Kingdom.
The culprit is often the kind of waiting lists the White House proposed Sunday. In 2000, the British medical journal Clinical Oncology, studying lung cancer patients waiting for government permission to get medical treatment found that about 20 percent “of potentially curable patients became incurable on the waiting list.”
Another 2003 British study found that after major surgery, 2.5 percent of American patients died in hospital, compared to 10 percent of similar Britons. Seriously ill patients in U.S. hospitals die at only one-seventh the rate of those in the British system, where government controls, prices and rations health care, according to Atlas Economic Research Foundation senior fellow Deroy Murdock.
“The proper way to reform health care is to get government out of the way, drive down prices by opening up a health insurance market closed off to competition by politicians doing the bidding of insurance lobbyists and remove FDA roadblocks that keep medication off the market and drive up the costs to develop lifesaving drugs,” said Ferguson.
For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or 202-333-0008, x. 225, or email [email protected].
Good article but it doesn’t seem to factor in those Americans that die from lack of health care which number in the hundreds of thousands. If you are never diagnosed then you aren’t included. I wish they’d discussed the whole truth.
And as far as Earth day I don’t know why the LP didn’t say something since protecting the environment is part of their platform. Here is the section straight from their site:
“2.2 Environment
We support a clean and healthy environment and sensible use of our natural resources. Private landowners and conservation groups have a vested interest in maintaining natural resources. Pollution and misuse of resources cause damage to our ecosystem. Governments, unlike private businesses, are unaccountable for such damage done to our environment and have a terrible track record when it comes to environmental protection. Protecting the environment requires a clear definition and enforcement of individual rights in resources like land, water, air, and wildlife. Free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems. We realize that our planet’s climate is constantly changing, but environmental advocates and social pressure are the most effective means of changing public behavior.”
And from the Earth Day site:
“Our campaign and programs are predicated on the belief that an educated, energized population will take action to secure a healthy future for itself and its children.”
It seems to be a major concern of LP to preserve the environment AND have an educated and energized population so it looks like a great day to get word out. Their silence was a bit strange. I hope they didn’t include section is just to get votes. I don’t need a third party lying to me.
Puzzling.
This whole thing is just disturbing to me. We have to MUCH healthcare? I thought healthcare was like clean air…you can’t really have to much of it.
Besides, if we have to much healthcare, then why do we need some method to provide it to people without insurance? I mean, someone has to be using it and I don’t know many people who shout “Yipee! I get to go to the doctor today!”
Good piece from Danny though. I think it did just what it needed to do. Well done.
We’re not quite as obscure as we once were. On the ’08 petition trail, name recognition was above 50% I would say. Of course, that’s among people who stopped, so there may be some sample error.
“Not necessarily universal at all. If the LP had anything good to say about earth day, I imagine it would be news to a lot of people.”
I’m not so sure. That assumes they have any idea of what the LP is, and therefore would know that any new release represents something different.
Not necessarily universal at all. If the LP had anything good to say about earth day, I imagine it would be news to a lot of people.
When you catch the administration in a verbal gaffe like this, you have to get it out quick – before the major opposition party exploits the same thing.
Granted, in this case the Republicans will pick up on the same quote about the government ensuring we don’t get too much health care, and the media will give the Republican opposition greater coverage. Nothing you can do about that.
However, I do think newsrooms across the country getting faxes from the LP about some Earth Day announcement would have been met with universal filings in the little round filing cabinet. This one might actually get some journalists asking, “Did Summers really say that?”
Its a good piece for sure, but since today is Earth Day I think that a release on pollution would have been more in vogue with what is happening. Since that is not the case I’ll be sure to give up thinking.
Now that’s the way to take a mainstream tack against the major parties, using their own words against them to boot! Good job, Donny Ferguson.