Published 21 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2058
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2058

Observations

Medicine and the Media

In the US things are getting nasty over NICE

¹ the Guardian

Critics of US healthcare reform cite alleged failings of the UK’s NHS and NICE as a scare tactic against "socialised medicine"

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Opponents of Barack Obama’s pledge to reform what he has called the United States’ broken healthcare system have launched a counteroffensive with television adverts. These highlight the shortcomings of the NHS and Canadian hospitals to try to block White House proposals to cut costs and widen access to treatment.

Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (CPR)—which is tied to sections of the US healthcare establishment and has spent millions of dollars on the adverts—has run weeks of the slots, showing doctors and patients ridiculing the UK and Canadian systems over waiting times for operations and the rationing of some treatments and life saving drugs.

CPR says that Obama’s plans to bring down the cost to the state and private insurance companies of the most expensive healthcare system in the world while extending access to about 45 million people without insurance—15% of the population—will result in rationing by the government. This they have . . . [Full text of this article]

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