Why Ruin the World’s Best Health Care
with Government Control?

At Issue: H.R. 3200 America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009
S. (No number, yet.) Affordable Health Choices Act

Facts About Government-Run Health Care

Oregon’s government plan: News media report that, currently, State health officials in Oregon are citing cost for refusing to provide treatment that would extend the life of a woman with cancer. Instead, they are said to have offered life-ending medication that costs about $100.

Massachusetts’ government health plan, adopted in 2006, is the model for Senator Kennedy’s “Affordable Health Choices Act”. Since its adoption, state government spending on health care programs has increased 42 percent and is, currently, 33 percent above the national average. Insurance premiums have increased nearly double the national average: 7.4 percent in 2007, 8 to 12 percent in 2008 and an expected 9 percent this year. Health insurance for a family of four averages $16,897, which is more than 33 percent above the national average of $12,700.

Massachusetts has more doctors per capita than any other state, but the Boston Globe reports the average wait to see a family doctor is now 63 days and up to a year for the busiest, most popular doctor. The wait to see a specialist is 50 days and a pregnant woman will be in her second trimester before she can see an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Canada’s physician shortage has caused officials to resort to lotteries. Patients that win the lottery tickets can see the local doctor. The problem is so severe in Canada that, between 2006 and 2008, Ontario sent 160 patients to New York and Michigan for emergency neurosurgery.

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