An epidemic of medical errors

According to the official party line, the American medical system is superior because it is. Government intervention in health care is bad because it is.

But this story should dash those tired fibs.

The nonprofit Consumers Union says preventable medical mistakes now kill over 100,000 Americans every year.

The group says this follows legislators' failure to enact patient safety measures recommended by a 1999 Institute of Medicine study.

The government has had 10 years to fix the problem and instead sat on its hands?

If a glaucoma patient legally uses marijuana prescribed by a doctor to treat their condition, the DEA is knocking on their door within the week. But when health care providers make deadly mistakes in the name of satisfying their profit margin, the government calls that the "free market."

At the same time, the American health care system is the most expensive in the world. Has all this expense made anyone safer?

Errors cited in the study include giving patients the wrong drugs or the wrong dosage. I've mentioned before that patients have even had the wrong organs removed or have been forced to wait too long before being treated. I've also discussed how hospitals have failed to contain superbugs - which now run rampant in American health care facilities.

Our health care system has become one of greed and carnage.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE54I6U320090519)