REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2006-02-23
Intro: two weeks ago the National Center for Health Statistics announced some spectacular news. The number of Americans dying from cancer fell for the first time in decades. . . .
For women, two of the most deadly forms of the disease -- lung and breast cancer -- are being successfully treated. For men, death from 11 of the 15 most common forms of cancer are on the decline, including prostate, colon, kidney, lung and leukemia. . . .
Why is cancer death falling? One leading reason has been the positive health effects from a decline in smoking. Tobacco use has tumbled by about half since the 1964 Surgeon General's report on the health hazards of smoking. The other major factors are early detection and better treatment. Both are the result of medical innovation funded by government, private donations, and profit-making bio-medical and pharmaceutical companies.
This is in marked contrast to the anti-cancer record of government-run health systems elsewhere in the world. As Michael Tanner, health-care expert at the Cato Institute, notes: "Because cancer is a slow moving and expensive disease to treat, it is not cost-effective under socialized medicine to treat the disease too aggressively. This saves governments money but at a high human cost."
The statistics bear out Mr. Tanner's point. . . .
We haven't yet won the race for a cure, but we are on the road to winning. Amid all of the criticism of the American medical system, this is progress to be savored by cancer survivors and their loved ones -- and understood by policy makers who want the progress to continue.
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