More evidence that socialized medicine kills:

    ...a study in the journal Circulation found that there was significant difference in the five-year post-heart attack survival rate between the U.S. and Canada.

    The U.S. had a better survival rate that the researchers found was attributable to the fact that the U.S. did more bypass surgeries and angioplasties than Canada. The data collected on both sides of the border was similar. Surely, over five years, many cultural factors not related to the health care system, such as diet and tobacco use, could account for the difference. Yet these factors probably cancel each other out; smoking rates are slightly higher in Canada, but obesity is higher in the U.S. Thus, it seems that our health care system is better at treating heart attack patients.

    A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal compared a host of studies that looked at the rate of adverse events in hospitals (a disability, prolonged hospital stay or death caused by hospital error) in different countries. The U.S. had much lower rates of adverse events than hospitals in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. The data wasn't completely comparable across studies; for example, some studies left out death as part of their definition of adverse events. But even if the rates of death in those had been twice what it was in the Canadian study, the U.S. would still come out well ahead.

    Finally, a study in the British Journal of Surgery compared patients in the U.S. and U.K. who had major surgery (except cardiac surgery.) The study controlled for the patients' risk of death prior to surgery. Despite this, the rate of mortality post-surgery was four times higher in the U.K. than in the U.S.