I was reading the interesting NHS Blog Doctor [1] and was struck by the latest round of debate about the various merits of private healthcare as opposed to "socialised" healthcare a la the NHS.

Readers of this blog might not be in need of any justification themselves for publically funded health care, but we should all be equipped with some facts and figures becauseincreasingly this argument is coming up, and is gaining currency even within circles that twenty years ago would not have dreamed of suggesting that profit should be anywhere near health care. This is the legacy of New Labour - now privatising the NHS isn't anathema.

"You are promoting an ideology!" say the privatisers, "But our system actually works. That's more important than your socialistic notions of fairness. Look at prostate cancer. In the US almost 100% five year survival rate whereas in the NHS its only 70%. This proves that private is better."

Firstly, I don't think this is comparing like with like. The US health system spends a vastly greater amount of money than the NHS - OECD figures for 2006 show that the UK spent 8.4% of GDP on health whereas the US spent 15.3%. That's clearly going to have a big impact on the amount of resources available.

(But, despite all that extra money the NHS still provides more hospital beds!)

Secondly, if you break down the prostate cancer stats in the UK a bit more you will see that five year survival does hit 99% for all those who present and are diagnosed prior to the cancer metastasizing. The issue then is one about the difference between routine standardised PSA screening and not rather than the funding mechanism.

Finally, looking at the bigger picture, say, life expectancy rates in the two countries, the UK actually comes out on top.

Cherry picking the statistics which fit your argument doesn't stop you being an ideologue ;-)

Private healthcare also rations the provision of healthcare - it just does it based on how rich people are instead of the various (admittedly sometimes bizarre) methods that the NHS uses. I'm not suggesting the NHS is perfect. Far from it. But I can see no evidence at all to suggest that privatising it would improve it one iota.