Britain Proves That Nazi Medicine Kills People Faster

May 17, 2009 (LPAC)—If comparative effectiveness research is adopted in the U.S. the way it has been operating in Britain since 1999, it will kill thousands, warns Dr. Karol Sikora, a top British oncologist, in an op-ed originally published on May 12 in New Hampshire's Manchester Union-Leader. Dr. Sikora reports that as a practicing oncologist, he is forced to give patients older, cheaper medicines. "The real cost of this penny pinching is premature death for thousands of patients—and higher overall health costs than if they had been treated properly: Sick people are expensive." Effective cancer treatments that are widely available in Continental Europe are prohibited in Britain by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. The result is, as shown by research by the Karolinska Institute of Sweden, that British cancer patients have lower survival rates than those in Sweden. "We are stuck with Soviet-quality care, in spite of the government massively increasing health spending since 2000 to bring the United Kingdom into line with other European countries."

"The risks of America's move toward British-style drug evaluation are clear," Sikora concludes. "In Britain, it has harmed patients. This is one British import Americans should refuse."