Economy best remedy

According to a study in Lancet Oncology (2008): 92 percent of American men with prostate cancer are alive after five years, compared with 51 percent in Britain; 90 percent of women in the U.S. diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000-2002 were alive after five years, compared to 78 percent in Britain. Additionally, the outcome for heart attacks is better in the U.S. than in Britain.

The British government drug rationing agency ruled that “therapeutic injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known. Instead, … (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.”

The best health care overall will come from a healthy economy, with businesses unburdened by taxes collected for an ineffective health care system. A robust economy will provide the resources to individuals who can seek out the care they need.

Those who are economically unable to afford health care can be covered by a safety net, not a lifelong, all-encompassing web of regulation, taxes and government-mandated (read, limited) treatment.

Roger Benedict

Spokane