Giuliani’s Shaky Relationship With the Truth

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/11/07/giulianis-shaky-relationship-with-the-truth/

by Seth Michaels, Nov 7, 2007

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is running a radio ad attacking Democratic health care proposals. In it, he says he was lucky to have gotten cancer treatment through the U.S. health care system, claiming the prostate cancer survival rate of 82 percent here is twice the rate in England.

The only problem: The claim he’s making is completely untrue. As economist Paul Krugman notes:

You see, the actual survival rate in Britain is 74.4 percent. That still looks a bit lower than the U.S. rate, but the difference turns out to be mainly a statistical illusion. The details are technical, but the bottom line is that a man’s chance of dying from prostate cancer is about the same in Britain as it is in America.

So Mr. Giuliani’s supposed killer statistic about the defects of “socialized medicine” is entirely false.

And what’s more, Giuliani’s treatment came while he was covered by a plan provided through the State of New York—a plan not unlike one proposed by several Democratic candidates, proposals that Giuliani is attacking in this very ad.

Giuliani isn’t backing down from his shoddy statistics. According to The Washington Post, which called the Giuliani ad “spectacularly wrong”:

Instead of acknowledging his error, Giuliani chose to repeat it on several occasions, including a campaign event here in Washington last Friday.

For the real story on America’s health crisis and what needs to be done, check out the AFL-CIO’s national health care campaign.


FULL story at link.