True But Misleading Health Care Statistics

The November 4, 2007 New York Times reports on three commonly cited "true but misleading statements about health care that politicians and pundits love to use to frighten the public":

STATEMENT 1) The United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, which has national health insurance.

STATEMENT 2) Some 47 million Americans do not have health insurance.

STATEMENT 3) Health costs are eating up an ever increasing share of American incomes.

These statements are frequently cited to justify increased government control of medicine, but the article explains why this is fallacious.

(If the NY Times link doesn't work, here's a mirror of the article at the International Herald Tribune.)