Socialized Medicine KILLS!!: Thousands of British Die Annually From Late Cancer Diagnosis

Various/The Lid ^ | 11/30/09 | The Lid

[Shellybenoit]

During the past few months, the United States has been embroiled in a debate about the government takeover of Health Care. Our friends "across the pond" in Great Britain have been discussing healthcare as well. The UK discussions are not about a government health care takeover, that has already happened, their discussions have been about how awful the medical care is in the British socialized medical system.

We are constantly that a most important part of treating cancer is early detection. The newest revelation about the over-worked British medical system is up to 10,000 British lives a year are lost because of a delayed diagnosis of their cancer.

[stuartcr]

Isn’t that essentially what happens to people here that do not have insurance? They tend to get public health treatment after they find something wrong.

[SC DOC]

I can't speak to for all states, but in South Carolina there are a number of programs for cancer screening of uninsured patients such as the Best Chance Network and community programs for prostate screening for men. Once a cancer is diagnosed, if patients live in the central area of SC, they are usually referred to my oncology group where they are treated for free in exactly the same way they would be if they had insurance. Pharmaceutical companies replace the chemo drugs we use for free, and we have a charitable foundation that picks up ancillary costs for pain meds, nausea meds, transportation, etc. The physician's time, nurses salaries, IV tubing, lab tests, x-rays, radiation treatments, etc. are donated by my group.

[stuartcr]

That’s good to hear, thanks.

[DPMD]

Okay, so thousands are dying. But look at the upside. Think of all the money the government saves annually; money that can be used for good causes. If you extrapolate out about a thousand years, enough money can be saved to scrap the current crummy system of government healthcare and replace it with a much better one, available for both of the surviving citizens of the UK.