by Jason Stotts
Amidst all of the calls for healthcare “reform” (i.e. Federal take-over), you frequently hear people say that the quality of care in the US lags behind many other countries. A recent Wall Street Journal article begs to differ.
The article points out that the study on which the ranking is based is dubious at best. One of the most damning things to me is that the WHO “study” did not even base its claims on health data!
An even bigger problem was shared by all five of these factors: The underlying data about each nation generally weren’t available. So WHO researchers calculated the relationship between those factors and other, available numbers, such as literacy rates and income inequality. Such measures, they argued, were linked closely to health in those countries where fuller health data were available. Even though there was no way to be sure that link held in other countries, they used these literacy and income data to estimate health performance.
So, instead of actually using real healthcare data for all of their metrics, they extrapolated data from only arguably related factors.
This is another instance of “fun with math” used to justify what is really no more than a power grab. The worst part is that Democrats can’t even be honest with themselves. They claim that they are trying to “fix” healthcare and make it better for everyone. But how will taxing the populace into destitution and degrading the health system help anyone? This will happen as good doctors quit, people line up for free visits for non-issues, and all private medicine fails while trying to compete with the government over-taxing and under-cutting them. So, since the actual outcome will be detrimental to all people, and any reasonable person can see the signs and the historic evidence from other countries, then they must be lying about their real goals.