from the Opinion Journal’s Poltical Diary- 8/10/07

Hillary was responding to a question about her support for socialized medicine

Mrs. Clinton also declared that Western European care was “better on balance” than U.S. care and offered to provide her questioner — a freelance writer named Kiara Ashanti — with background information “if you’re interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical.” Oh, snap.

Moreover, her hosannas to Western Europe don’t really hold up under scrutiny. The U.S. may rank lower in crude health outcomes like life expectancy and infant mortality, but these reflect a variety of factors (such as lifestyle choices) and measure health, not health care. More sophisticated metrics (like five-year outcomes from the point of diagnosis) consistently show American medicine offers better, more state-of-the-art care to more people.

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