Rhetoric Fail
10 Aug, 09 | by David Hunter
Thom Brooks on facebook has pointed out this hilarious rhetorical fact checking fail from Neo-conservatives debating the public provision of health care in the US:
The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror movie script.
The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) basically figures out who deserves treatment by using a cost-utility analysis based on the “quality adjusted life year.”
One year in perfect health gets you one point. Deductions are taken for blindness, for being in a wheelchair and so on.
The more points you have, the more your life is considered worth saving, and the likelier you are to get care.
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Now the problem with this lovely piece of rhetorical flourish is of course that Stephen Hawking lives in the U.K. where he supposedly wouldn’t stand a chance…
Thanks for the laugh Thom
Damn: the post to which Thom was referring has been edited.
No fun.
Iain Brassington
August 12th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
What’s less funny is their equally erroneous description of how QALYs are used….and the fact that so many Americans believe the same thing.
David Shaw
August 12th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
More misinformation from the USA:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/11/nhs-united-states-republican-health
David Shaw
August 12th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
My ex-flatmate Richard is doing quite a good job of keeping up with this stuff: see http://thefatlimey.blogspot.com/.
He wasn’t fat last time I saw him.
Iain Brassington
August 12th, 2009 at 11:40 pm