http://www.cato.org/pubs/pase/pa532.pdf

In this new report, the Cato Institute thoroughly rebukes the myths of nationalized healthcare. Some choice passages.

[quote]Ironically, over the course of the past decade, nearly every European country with a national health care system has introduced market-orientated reforms and turned to the private sector to reduce health costs and increase the value, availability, and effectivness, of treatment. In making such changes, more often than not those countries look to the United States for guidance. About seven million people in Britain now have private health insurance, and since the Labour government assumed power, the number of patients paying out of the pocket for medical treatment, has increased by 40 percent.[/quote]

[quote]FIGURE I: PATIENTS HAVING TO WAIT MORE THAN FOUR MONTHS FOR SURGERY (as a percentage of all adults recieving nonemergancy surgery in the last four years). BRITAIN: 36% CANADA: 27% NEW ZEALAND: 26% AUSTRALIA: 23% USA: 5%[/QUOTE]


[quote]Thirty percent of American patients spend more than 20 minutes with their doctor on a visit, compared with 20 percent in Canada, and 5 percent in Britain.[/quote]

[/QUOTE]FIGURE 4: USE OF HIGH TECH MEDICAL PROCEDURES (per 100,000 people per year). DIALYSIS PATIENTS: USA: 86% CANADA: 45.7% UK: 27.0% CORONARY BYPASS: USA: 203.0 % CANADA: 65.0% UK: 41.0% CORONARY ANGIOPLASTY: USA: 388.1 % CANADA: 80.8% UK: 51.0 %[/quote]

[quote]The annual rate of cancer deaths is 70 percent higher in the United Kingdom than the United States.[/quote]

[quote]In New Zealand and the United Kingdom, nearly half of all women diagnosed with breast cancer die of the disease. By contrast, in the United States, only one in four dies.[/quote]

[quote]FIGURE 7: BREAST CANCER MORALITY RATIO (percentage of those diagnosed with the disease who die of it). NZ: 46% UK: 46% FRANCE: 35% GERMANY: 31% CANADA: 28% AUSTRALIA: 28% UNITED STATES: 25%[/QUOTE]

[quote]FIGURE 8: PROSTATE CANCER MORTALITY RATIO (percentage of those diagnosed with the disease who die of it). UK: 57% FRANCE: 49% GERMANY: 44% AUSTRALIA: 35% NZ: 30% CANADA: 25% USA: 19%[/quote]

[quote]FIGURE 13: HOW THE ELDERLY EVALUATE THEIR CARE: Experianced long wait for nonemergency surgery: US: 7% CANADA: 40% UK: 51% Difficulty gaining access to a specialist: US: 14% CANADA: 23% UK: 23% Long wait for serious surgery: US: 4% CANADA:11% UK: 13% Recieved inadequate outpatient services: US: 4% CANADA: 10% UK: 14%[/quote]

[quote]The failures of socialized medicine are evident in every country that implements it, and there is no reason to believe that a single-payer system in the United States would be any different.[/quote]

The answer is clear. The free market is the answer to modern day healthcare needs.

As for sensible, free market solutions, to America's healthcare woes, check out www.marketmed.org

Ben, your link does not work, and the "Quotes" are not either.

Yeah I just noticed that.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa532.pdf

I don't know about the quotes but try the link now.

Do these figures include the 44 million uninsured? Are they even counted in such cases and statistics? And if the free market is so good - why is it almost impossible to afford insurance if you have a preexisting condition and are self employed?

"At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58789194."
So 7 million feel the need for private insurance.
That leaves well over FIFTY MILLION who don't!!!!