Denialism

Month: May 2009

  • What is health care like in the UK, Canada and New Zealand?

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    MarkH
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    Three systems widely cited as examples of universal health care are the so-called single-payer systems in the UK, Canada and New Zealand. These systems I would describe as “socialized”, and rely for the most part on taxation for funding. The system in Canada for instance, uses taxes to pay for health care administered by the…

  • What is the cause of excess costs in US healthcare?

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    MarkH
    in

    The question has come up again and again in our discussions on health care in the US and around the world, why does it cost so much more in the US when we get so much less? The drug companies and their lobbyists are already out in force trying to make sure their pocketbooks aren’t…

  • What is health care like in France?

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    Here it comes. How dare I suggest the US could learn anything from France? By most assessments France provides the best health care in the world, with excellent life expectancy, low rates of health-care amenable disease, and again, despite providing excellent universal care, they spend less per capita than the US. Using about 10.7% of…

  • What is healthcare like in Germany?

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    MarkH
    in

    What better argument for universal health care can you make than that of Germany? By far one of the most successful systems, it has had some form of universal health care for almost 130 years, and is currently one of the most successful health care systems in the world. It is again, a mixture of…

  • Denying AIDS – A book by Seth Kalichman

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    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    Seth Kalichman is a better man than I. Kalichman is a clinical psychologist, editor of the journal Aids and Behavior and director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research and Evaluation (SHARE) product, and he has devoted his life to the treatment and prevention of HIV. Despite a clear passion for reducing the harm done by HIV/AIDS,…

  • What is healthcare like in the Netherlands?

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    MarkH
    in

    The Dutch really have it together on health care, they have a system that has been proposed as a model for the US to emulate. In stark contrast to many other European systems, it’s actually based entirely on private insurers, rather than a single-payer or entirely national system. Yet the Dutch system is universal, has…

  • What’s health care like in Australia?

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    MarkH
    in

    To start off some balanced discussions of what universal health care looks like around the world, I thought I would begin with Australia, a system that we could learn a great deal from. In the US system, we do not have universal healthcare, we have mostly employer-subsidized healthcare, private insurance and medicare covering people’s health…

  • NHS has broken the cycle!

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    MarkH
    in

    A few days ago I asked how do we break this cycle of news reports based on terrible misreading of the scientific literature literature. All these reports do is spread misinformation and undermine trust in scientific research. Well, the British National Health System has the answer! Via Ben Goldacre, I’ve found my new, favorite website,…

  • Are Patients in Universal Healthcare Countries Less Satisfied?

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    by

    MarkH
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    A dishonest campaign has started against healthcare reform in this country and the first shot has come from Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), a group purporting to show that patients in universal health systems suffer from government interference in health care. To bolster their argument, they have a pile of anecdotes from people around the…

  • The 111th Skeptics’ circle, featuring that creepy Sham-Wow guy

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    MarkH
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    I have no idea what possessed Action Skeptics to use the Sham Wow guy to present this week’s entries, but it’s amusing. Check it! In particular I like ICBS everywhere on this thermography nonsense, and Living better skeptically on yet another cancer quack. It’s very upsetting when quack modalities defraud people of hard-earned money. It’s…