The fact that the current health care system in America leaves some people uninsured is an accepted one. No one is denying that each year the inability to access medical care results in missed diagnoses and preventable deaths. But nationalizing health care in order to cover all US citizens, á la the plans of the current administration, would only necessitate the rationing of treatment, further reducing the number of patients receiving adequate attention and deteriorating the health status of all Americans, and of women in particular.

The Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott called attention yesterday to the troubling correlation between nationalized health care systems and higher rates of both breast cancer cases and deaths. Quoting Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft, Tapscott writes that:

“women with breast cancer have a 14 percent higher survival rate in the United States than in Europe,’ due primarily to the much lower rate of early detection among European cancer patients.

The only effects of nationalizing health care, it seems, would be to raise the age of a woman’s first mammogram, reduce the number of routine screenings she receives throughout her life, and delay the detection of breast cancer beyond the point of easy treatment. How do you justify jeopardizing the health of over 50 percent of the population to expand coverage to the 9 million or so that, according to The Spectator, are those truly uninsured for the long haul? Apparently women’s health doesn’t fall under the category of “universal coverage”.