Free Republic

This is an argument refuting the Clinton socialist "healthcare" scheme. Bears repeating. Why does "the U.S. spend such a high percentage of its GDP on health care"? Murray Rothbard summarizes the problem with this argument in Making Economic Sense: "Their main argument for the plan is that health care is "too costly," and that thesis rests on the fact that health care spending, over recent years, has risen considerably as a percentage of the GDP But a spending rise is scarcely the same as a cost increase; if it were, then I could easily argue that, since the percentage of...

ROCHDALE, England, May 2 — "I snapped it out myself," said William Kelly, 43, describing his most recent dental procedure, the autoextraction of one of his upper teeth. Now it is a jagged black stump, and the pain gnawing at Mr. Kelly's mouth has transferred itself to a different tooth, mottled and rickety, on the other side of his mouth. "I'm in the middle of pulling that one out, too," he said. It is easy to be mean about British teeth. Mike Myers's mouth is a joke in itself in the "Austin Powers" movies. In a "Simpsons" episode, dentalphobic children...

ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatia's government ordered doctors to return to work Thursday, nearly a month after they began a strike that has paralyzed the country's nationalized health system. Labor unions did not immediately respond to the order. Earlier they said doctors would not openly defy such an order but would attempt to thwart its purpose by slowing down service once they were back on the job. Thousands of doctors went on strike Jan. 15, demanding a nearly 50 percent increase in their salaries. Since Jan. 20, they have been performing only emergency surgery and checkups. The Health Ministry is investigating...

December 23, 2002 One in three hospitals fiddles waiting lists By Andrew Norfolk ONE in three national health service trusts is deliberately distorting hospital waiting list figures, an investigation has found. The scale of the systematic fiddling uncovered by the Audit Commission throws into disarray a key government pledge on public services. The inaccuracies were exposed when Audit Commission teams carried out unannounced spot checks at 45 of the 186 acute and specialist trusts in England which are covered by the targets. Health service insiders say that thereport will reveal that up to a third of trusts were found to...