Health care numbers not complete

To the editor:

We are being inundated with health care information, much of it misleading.

Here is another bit that needs correcting. There is an ad currently on TV put out by the Independent Women’s Forum. It states that the breast cancer survival rate in England is much lower than the rate in the U.S. (69 percent to 83.9 percent; Concord Study, Lancet Oncology, August 2008). The implication is that England’s national health care system is a failure. While England does have a lower survival rate, the U.S. rate is almost exactly the same as Canada (82.5 percent), Australia (80.7 percent), Cuba (84 percent) and Sweden (82 percent). These are all countries with national health systems.

Obviously, the national systems in these countries are as successful at breast cancer treatment as the U.S. While the ad is not untruthful, it has cherry-picked the statistics for its own purposes. The health care debate is extremely critical to the nation. Let’s try to keep it honest.

Patricia Fisher

Wasilla