Rudy Giuliani Misrepresents Important Health Care Facts

The Republican presidential nominees haven't had a stellar track record of being forthright about policy discussion--but in a new radio ad describing his cancer diagnosis, Rudy Giuliani misrepresents several important facts about health care. In a post titled "Rudy's fuzzy healthcare math," ABC news notes that,

But the data Giuliani cites comes from a single study published eight years ago by a not-for-profit group, and is contradicted by official data from the British government.

According to the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics, for men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1999 and 2003, the "five-year survival rate" -- a common measurement in cancer statistics -- was 74.4 percent.

The statistics show that the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer victims in the UK has been steadily rising to approach the survival rate Giuliani cited for the United States.

Ezra Klein argues that not only is the data fuzzy, but that the actual rate is virtually the same between both the United Kingdom and the United States.

England and America have virtually the same mortality rates from prostate cancer. In England (as of 1997), 28 males of every 100,000 died from prostate cancer. In America, the number was 26.

Problem is, most of those cancers simply aren't deadly, or even necessarily damaging. They're slow-moving and benign. It's like saying we have a lower death rate from car crashes because we record more near-misses in the statistics.

UPDATE: The mortality rate of prostate cancer survivors is nearly the same as the mortality in the United States. In the United Kingdom the rate is 17.9 per 100,000 males where it's 15.8 per 100,000 males.

Comments (2) «

Let's not talk about death rates; let's talk about the anguish of the survivors.

Those without medical insurance will be saddled for the rest of their lives with catostrophic medical bills they can't afford to pay. What will that do to their health and future prognosis?

We need universal coverage not any medical savings accounts designed for tax evasion...which poor people can't afford to participate in anyway.

It always goes back to what a wealthy Republican sees as a way to profit off the suffering of others not about the well being of their fellow countrymen. The GOP is a bunch of parasites.

1

SandyH on October 29, 2007 at 06:53 PM

Rudy Giuliani, Silvio Berlusconi, Rene Preval, Mobutu Sese Seko, Ehud Olmert . The faces of prostate cancer are the faces of all of us. Meanwhile, for any man going through a new diagnosis of prostate cancer, one cannot underestimate the value of prostate cancer support, be they from a formal prostate cancer support groups or, as in the case of Roberto, a number of women.

2

Arnon on October 29, 2007 at 11:43 PM

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