Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
On More Examples of Government-Run Health Care Systems Failing Patients
Monday, September 11, 2023
Mr. President,
I’m committed to lowering health care costs, expanding access to high quality care and supporting research and innovation.
The health care system in the United States needs more reform and accountability.
However, we shouldn’t ruin it by turning it into a government-run health care system – whether you want to call that government-run health care system 'Medicare for All,' or 'single-payer' or even 'socialized medicine.'
A government-run health care system is a one-size-fits-all approach. It results in longer wait times, delayed care and do-it-yourself health care because you cannot access a doctor.
In February, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the failure of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, NHS for short.
They wrote, “Now the state-funded service is falling apart. People who suffer heart attacks or strokes wait more than one and a half hours on average for an ambulance. Hospitals are so full they are turning patients away.
“A record 7.1 million people in England—more than one in 10—are stuck on waiting lists for nonemergency hospital treatment like hip replacements.”
I want to quote from the Wall Street Journal, another one: “Delays in treating people are causing the premature deaths of 300 to 500 people a week” and “One in five British people were waiting for a medical appointment or treatment by the NHS in December.”
If you didn’t find that article about the United Kingdom alarming, in May, British Columbia announced they are sending cancer patients to Bellingham, Washington in the United States for treatment.
A Canadian news outlet wrote this: that health Minister Adrian Dix announced “that eligible breast and prostate cancer patients will be sent to one of two clinics in Bellingham for radiation treatment […] The unprecedented move to send thousands of British Columbia patients to the U.S. over the next two years is an attempt to address the backlog in British Columbia which has one of the longest waits for radiation treatment in Canada.”
Canada is taking this action because its cancer patients face unacceptable waiting times.
Currently, only 82.9 percent of British Columbia cancer patients who require radiation start treatment within 28 days.
That means over 17 percent of cancer patients are waiting at least a month or longer to start cancer treatment.
Canada’s single-payer health care problems aren’t found in just one province.
In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ontario is turning to private healthcare options to fix the growing problems with its single-payerfunded healthcare system.
Canada’s most-populous province is allowing more patients to go to private treatment centers for cataract and joint-replacement surgeries, and for servicessuch as MRIs or CT scans.
The Wall Street Journal writes, “The median wait time in Canada last year between referral and treatment was 27.4 weeks, the longest on record, compared with 9.3 weeks in 1993. Ontario reported the shortest wait time of 20.3 weeks, while the eastern province of Prince Edward Island reported the longest at 64.7 weeks.”
And finally, back to Great Britain, a YouGov poll recently found that Britons are “pulling their own teeth out with pliers” because they can't access National Health Service dentists.
The poll found 10 percent of respondents had attempted do-it-yourself dentistry.
Mr. President, I’m committed to improving the health care system.
I’m working to: lower the cost of prescription drugs; maintain access to rural health care; ensure our nation’s seniors can have high-quality affordable hearing aids; address high maternal mortality rates; and lastly, improve the care delivery system for kids with complex medical needs.
And that’s just to name a few
However, a government-run health care system is not the answer.
British and Canadian health care systems are plagued by longer and longer wait times, and delayed care.
These government-run health care systems are paying for patients to get care in the United Statesand resorting to DIY health care.
Mr. President, this body needs to be reminded how government-run health care systems are broken and do not work.
In closing, I ask unanimous consent to insert the articles referenced in my remarks into the record.
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