More proof U.S. health care is the best
Americans don’t skimp on health care. 15% of the nation’s economy is now dedicated to health care. An under-reported study by Lancet Oncology magazine shows that cancer survival rates in the U.S. continue to outstrip those in Europe.
The 5-year survival rate for all cancers in Europe was 47.3% for men and 55.8% for women.
In the US those numbers are 66.3% for men and 62.9% for women.
Medscape noted:
Survival was significantly higher in the United States for all solid tumors, except testicular, stomach, and soft-tissue cancer, the authors report. The greatest differences were seen in the major cancer sites: colon and rectum (56.2% in Europe vs 65.5% in the United States), breast (79.0% vs 90.1%), and prostate cancer (77.5% vs 99.3%), and this “probably represents differences in the timeliness of diagnosis,” they comment. That in turn stems from the more intensive screening for cancer carried out in the United States, where a reported 70% of women aged 50 to 70 years have undergone a mammogram in the past 2 years, one-third of people have had sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy in the past 5 years, and more than 80% of men aged 65 years or more have had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. In fact, it is this PSA testing that probably accounts for the very high survival from prostate cancer seen in the United States, the authors comment.
A 99.3% survival rate for prostate cancer in the U.S.? 90.1% for breast cancer? I never knew.
Of course we cannot admit that maybe the capitalist system favored in the US may be an improvement upon Euro-socialism.
There is this paragraph:
Further analysis of these figures shows that, in the case of men, more than half of the difference in survival between Europe and United States can be attributed to prostate cancer. When prostate cancer is excluded, the survival rates decreased to 38.1% in Europe and 46.9% in the United States. For women, the survival rate of 62.9% for all cancers in the United States is comparable to that seen in the wealthiest European countries (eg, 61.7% in Sweden, 59.7% in Europe), and the slightly higher survival in the United States was largely due to better survival for colorectal and breast cancer, the authors comment.
Sure, if you take out cancer altogether, Europe’s system is pretty damned good. Costs less. And if you don’t count the 11,000 old French people who died in the heat wave in 2003, the age expectancy is a few months longer.
It is interesting that we have better screening for breast and prostate cancers. Those tests are expensive. But “free” health care doesn’t cover it.
The American health system: Expensive and worth every penny.
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