Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994 TAG: 9406020005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cal Thomas
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Before radically altering (rather than eliminating the few flaws in the world's best health-care system), we should consider the experience of two other countries that accepted as a matter of faith that government involvement in caring for our health needs leads to better medical services. In both England and Canada, sometimes used by reformers as examples of what America's health care could become, serious fault lines have been revealed.
In England, the Royal College of Surgeons reports that surgeons in more than four out of 10 hospitals have been told to reduce the number of operations they perform because of a shortage of cash. A survey of 234 surgeons from all over the country found widespread reductions in routine operations and cuts in the number of outpatients. A survey last year revealed a similar trend.
General surgery was found to be most affected, with 30 percent of hospitals slowing down operations, followed by specialists in orthopedics (26 percent), urology (26 percent), and ear, nose and throat (12 percent).
As a result of the slowdowns, the number of patients waiting for treatment had increased in more than half of all general surgical departments and in four out of 10 orthopedic departments.
In Birmingham, England, a health authority (a version of the ``alliances'' proposed in the Clinton health plan), was forced to lay off 1,200 staff members, including doctors and nurses, from its 5,000-member work force because of financial losses of 26 million pounds ($39 million). Health unions responded to the cuts by saying they would ``decimate'' health care in Birmingham.
Hospital waiting lists throughout England are reported to be soaring. A record 1,064,302 people were awaiting hospital treatment at the end of 1993. The number of people waiting more than a year has risen by 5.1 percent to 74,079.
In Canada, $500,000 in donations from discharged patients is being solicited by St. Joseph's Hospital in Thunder Bay, Ontario, for new equipment.
A recent article in World Magazine reveals a Canadian government health system that shines on the outside, but inside, falls short of expectations in meeting the needs of its citizens.
Like England, waiting lists in Canada are growing, even as services are being reduced. People with illnesses considered ``exotic'' must wait even longer. Care is being rationed. The number of hospital beds has been cut. Some hospitals have closed. Access to others is being controlled.
Michael Walker of Vancouver's Fraser Institute told World: ``In Canada, patients are typically waiting three times longer for radiation for cancer than are Americans. That's a development which shows that people's longevity is being directly threatened by policies, policies driven by budget constraints.''
Sally Pipes, president of San Francisco's Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, says: ``Almost 1.4 million Canadians (out of a population of 26 million) are waiting for some sort of medical care. ... Nearly 180,000 are waiting for surgery, with 45 percent of those reporting they are in pain.'' Canada's top health problem is cardiovascular disease, yet, says Pipes, the wait for urgent heart surgery is eight weeks. ``The result: a cardiovascular patient is 10 times as likely to die waiting for surgery as he is to die on the operating table.''
This is a preview of what Americans can expect if we turn over the management of our health to the government, which eventually will place cost, rather than the value of our lives, as its top priority. Since my health and life will always be of greater value to me than to a government bureaucrat, guess who is likely to prevail if a dispute arises about medical treatment?
With the devaluing of certain categories of human life, from the unborn to the elderly to eventually those with illnesses deemed ``too exotic'' for government to spend the money, the brave new world in which technology and the bottom line are supreme will have finally arrived.
Government has failed miserably in running the post office. The veterans hospitals are a mess. If the feds get their hands on health care, ``I'm from the government and I'm here to help you'' will turn from an empty promise and a laugh line for stand-up comedians to a serious threat to our health and lives.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB