Gambling with our health care system

I saw that Dr. David Gratzer’s new book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594034605?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=1594034605″span style=”font-style:italic;”Why Obama’s Government Takeover of Health Care Will Be a Disaster /span/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=1594034605″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / is now out. Glenn received a copy last week and I read it in one sitting as it is small, compact and full of great information on free-market health care reform. He is also the author of a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159403219X?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=159403219X”span style=”font-style:italic;”The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care/span/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=159403219X” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / that I read when it came out last year.br /br /Gratzer, a psychiatrist, is a href=”http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/gratzer.htm”a senior fellow/a at the Manhattan Institute. He uses examples from his experience with the failures of the Canadian system to show why socialized medicine doesn’t work. He was born and raised in Canada and at one point, believed that government health care was “compassionate and equitable.” He soon learned that this was a crock, after a relative and other patients couldn’t get the care they needed and were left to suffer. br /br /Most notable about his current book is that he disputes many of the arguments in favor of government-controlled health care and uses facts to back up his statements. For example, Gratzer points out that “some argue that countries with government-run health care have found a way to tame the health-inflation problem. They claim that while costs spiral up in the US, there countries are doing better.” He found that the cost of health care in socialized-care countries like France, Canada, and Ireland is growing at roughly the same rate as in the United States. “Between 2000 and 2006, the a href=”http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_36734052_36761681_1_1_1_1_1,00.html”OECD/a average real annual growth rate for health spending was 4.9 percent; the US rate was 4.95 percent. Despite the rationing and central government control, these countries haven’t stopped the trend of rising costs.” br /br /The book is quite good if you want a handy, compact book that succinctly makes the argument against universal health care and for free-market reform. I have used it several times in discussions with others on the topic. But if you want more detail, I suggest you read Gratzer’s book, “The Cure.”