Misleading health care claims

Beyond Those Health Care Numbers

Economic View
Beyond Those Health Care Numbers
By N. GREGORY MANKIW
Published: November 4, 2007
The most dangerous claims in the health care debate are those that are true but don’t mean what people think they mean.


Here are three of the true but misleading statements about health care that politicians and pundits love to use to frighten the public:

1. The United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, which has national health insurance.
   
2. Some 47 million Americans do not have health insurance
   
3. Health costs are eating up an ever increasing share of American incomes.
   

Comments: A worthwhile read. Brief answers to the above

1. True, but other factors are at play: accidents, homicides (high in some segments of society not present to the same degree in Canada!), and lifestyle choices affecting obesity! National health insurance would not touch any of these factors!
   
2. True, but: a.) includes 10 million illegals that would not have insurance were we to have national health insurance; b.) includes some who would be covered by Medicaid but have not enrolled; c.) includes many who choose not to have insurance (healthy young adults who prefer not to purchase it when it is available to them & wealthy americans (some retired) who choose to self-insure). I personally know people in the "c" category!
   
3. True, but "The reason that we spend more than our grandparents did is not waste, fraud and abuse, but advances in medical technology and growth in incomes. Science has consistently found new ways to extend and improve our lives. Wonderful as they are, they do not come cheap".
   

Conclusion (from the article):

Our health care system is not perfect, but it has been a major source of advances in our standard of living, and it will be a large share of the economy we bequeath to our children. As we look at reform plans, we should be careful not to be fooled by statistics into thinking that the problems we face are worse than they really are.