USA: Health insurance company cancels breast cancer patient's policy.
UK: National Health Service refuses to treat breast cancer patient.
They're strikingly similar scenarios. I wonder how many times you'll hear someone flog one or the other of those to demonstrate the horrors of the {free market health care system, government health care system} they revile so much, conveniently omitting the analogous story.
Additional commentary by Tyler Cowen and Jacob Sullum on those respective stories.
Posted by Matt Bruce at February 26, 2008 11:26 AMI strongly supect the UK case is pretty atypical in that their lack of treatment is more upfront than normal.
I suspect the standard UK rationing response is "We dont have a treatment for that. Sorry." is less immediately damning than the standard US rationing response "We do have a treatment for that, just not for you. Sorry."
Posted by: Kubi at February 26, 2008 08:17 PM