Today, just in time for the release of Michael Moore's spectacular documentary film, SiCKO, Business Week greets us with this headline:
Despite spending lots more per capita on health care, the U.S. is often as bad or worse than other industrialized nations in wait times.
Yep, another Rush Limbaugh talking point smashed!
One of the most repeated truisms about the U.S. health-care system is that, for all its other problems, American patients at least don't have to endure the long waits for medical care that are considered endemic under single-payer systems such as those in Canada and Britain. But as several surveys and numerous anecdotes show, waiting times in the U.S. are often as bad or worse as those in other industrialized nations—despite the fact that the U.S. spends considerably more per capita on health care than any other country.
