Giuliani Under Fire: NH Health Care Group Demands Misleading Ad Be Pulled Down
Giuliani Under Fire: NH Health Care Group Demands Misleading Ad Be Pulled Down
New Hampshire for Health Care, which “represents more than 60,000 residents who consider health care a top priority in the 2008 election,” has called on Giuliani to pull down his misleading ad on prostate cancer statistics. In the ad, Giuliani claims that his “chance of surviving prostate cancer” was 82 percent in the United States, and just 44 percent “under socialized medicine” in England.
Giuliani’s campaign confirmed that it took the statistics from a summer 2007 article entitled “The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care.” The piece by David Gratzer appeared in the right-wing quarterly magazine City Journal, an arm of the conservative Manhattan Institute.
Gratzer told reporters that “he based his figures on a study by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit group that researches health care policy.” But according to the Concord Monitor today, the Commonwealth Fund disputes Giuliani and Gratzer’s use of its figures:
But the Commonwealth Fund said the figures didn’t come from its reports. They can’t accurately be calculated from the seven-year-old report Gratzer references, said Dr. Stephen Schoenbaum, executive vice president for programs at the Commonwealth Fund.
“The figures that they’re working on (are) not correctly derived,” he said. “They’re also old numbers. The numbers are possibly changing.”
The Commonwealth Fund report relied upon by Gratzer is from 2000, and contains a chart on prostate cancer “incidence and mortality rates”:
Incidence rates “simply report the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer in a given year.” This number is higher in the United States because prostate cancer screening is more common. Mortality rates — which are comparable between the United States and Britain — chart the number of men who died of the disease in a given year. Gratzer and Giuliani, however, cite five-year survival rates.
As a Commonwealth Fund statement from earlier this week noted, survival rates “can not be calculated” using the incidence and mortality rates contained in its report.
UPDATE: Steve Benen has more examples of Giuliani continuing to cite these faulty statistics and Ezra Klein explains some of Giuliani’s “fuzzy math.” Joe Conasan takes a look at what type of health care Giuliani had when he was battling prostate cancer. Eugene Robinson and Paul Krugman also have more.
UPDATE II: At a campaign event in New York City today, Giuliani stood by his inaccurate numbers:
GIULIANI: Oh, sure — no, those figures are absolutely accurate as of the time that I had them. In fact, they remain accurate today. You just have to look at the City Journal article.
I made my decision about what to do about prostate cancer in 2000. The report is from the year 2000. The report indicates that in the United States, back in the year 2000, there was an 82 percent chance of my surviving prostate cancer if it was detected, whereas in England, there would have been a 43 percent chance.
Actually, the inaccuracy is, I think I say 44 percent — it’s actually 43 percent in England.
And those statistics have changed slightly today. The chance of survival in the United States now is up to 98, 99 percent, and in England it’s about 74 percent.
But the statistics, as of the time I made the decision, absolutely accurate and I stand by them.
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26 Responses to “Giuliani Under Fire: NH Health Care Group Demands Misleading Ad Be Pulled Down”
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Cursed facts!
How dare they get in the way of a good soundbite!
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 pm100% of the comments on this thread contain sarcasm.
Statistics, saving the world for the single-minded.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:40 pmToo bad no one that supports Ghouliani will bother to read the facts. Even those without health insurance will skip the truth. It's as unreal as people earning $50k supporting tax cuts for millionaires. I can't believe that there are that many stupid people in the U.S. I know in Canada if the govt come out with tax breaks for the wealthy there'd be screaming murder until the govt was overthrown. It just wouldn't happen.
btw, anyone catch the dialog by Warren Buffet? He pays 16% tax, about 1/2 of that paid by all of his employees. He's like the 2nd richest man in the U.S. Amazing.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:43 pmGiuliani's in the same "altered reality" (aka 'lalaland') as Bush so it's little wonder the reichwingnuts and the whoring media have selected him as the frontrunner! They're cut from the same mold - the "idiot mold".
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:45 pmGhouliani represents the absolute "worst" aspects of mankind - he's a lying thug affiliated with the mafioso from way back and continues to make up stats and facts as he goes.
Biden nailed him accurately when he said that "Giuliani combines a noun and a verb (if he even knows what parts of speech these are?) and 911 and that's the full extent of his vocabulary.
There's no fool like an old fool and Rudy is definitely "an old fool".
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:47 pmTo Rudy, actual facts are nothing more than "an inconvenient truth".
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:48 pmSome fascinating and concerning reading on Guilliani here: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/142469-Not-Scared-Yet-Giuliani-is-Bush-on-Steroids and this one why Guillinani is a nightmare: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/140089-Rudy-Giuliani-Nightmare
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:54 pmTP: Where's the 'skinny' on the latest Republiscum Hypocrite, Richard Curtis, and his exposed tryst with a gay prostitute? Another Scumbag Sicko Republican bites the dust! How do they stand to look at themselves in the mirror?
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm#7 thanks for the link. Everyone knows that Rudy was part of the 911 scheme - Bush on Steroids who would become a national hero for his part in 911 (the part that is the official story). Little did the neofascists realize that their official story wouldn't hold water long enough for Rudy to become Bush's successor. Sorry Rudy - you're a class A thug with spaghetti for brains and every time you appear, you make a bigger buffoon of yourself.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:57 pm"Prostate, Pain, 9/11," Rudy Giuliani exhorted in his ad.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:58 pmI really haven't heard one intelligent and complete sentence (other than a simple sentence) from Rudy when he's speaking extemp, have you?
Reminds me of the cringing we all do when the Shrub goes off the teleprompter or his notes.....wondering how much larger a moron he can make of himself in public. eeewwwww.....
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pmgo to C & L for some "juicy details" of Richard Curtis' tryst with a gay prostitute if you want some jollies.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:00 pmwe need a hero...
Kucinich Will Introduce Privileged Resolution To Force Up Or Down ...
Common Dreams (press release), ME - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON - November 2 - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced today that he will be offering a privileged resolution on the House floor next week ...
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1102-01.htm
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:01 pm.
Listen, you libruls, 9/11 changed everything about prostate cancer statistics.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:02 pmAnd of course in inveighing against 'socialized medicine', since prostate cancer is a disease of older men, what percentage of cases are treated under Medicare?
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:12 pm"Truthiness is what you want the facts to be, as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer as opposed to what reality will support."
~ Stephen Colbert
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:13 pmEvery single time Benito Giuliani deliberately spews his lies and dares the media to correct him, it is up to us to blogswarm his lies, because the media is going to give him a free pass, like they always do for the Repubs.
The "Librul" media likes to create negative narratives around Democratic candidates, while at the same time promoting Repubs (see "I want to have a beer with Bush, who was an incoherent alchoholic for 30 years).
We'll do the media's damned job for them, and we'll make sure America knows that you can't believe a word that comes out of Benito Giuliani's mouth.
P.S. Think calling Rudy "Benito" is over the top? If the shoe fits... Besides, the Repub candidates are deliberately calling Barack Obama, Barack Osama, conflating him with America's number one enemy.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 pmSo Giuliani has lied and insists that he will keep on lying. Nice. Lots of class, Rudy. But what do you expect from someone whose scummy friends include the corrupt, mob-connected Bernard Kerik.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:21 pmThat colorful bar chart of the incidence of prostate cancer and the resulting death rate is interesting: the death rate in all the countries shown is nearly identical. I don't know what this shows or provides. Maybe some medical expert can provide us a little light on this subject.
Of course, the point at hand is that Rudi G. is being stupid and deceitful as usual... Every morning, when I get up, I wonder how can Bush and his neo-con idiot supporters be any more vile, any more stupid and any more vicious, and yet, somehow, they manage to top all of their previous performances. New lows reached by Bush, Cheney and the babbling corporate media today...
The Bush regime is crashing and burning... Of course, the remaining fascist neo-con ruins will be stinking up the body politic for years to come.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:27 pmKeep on trying, but you won't distract anyone from Hill'reh's poor performance at the debate this week. She has NO answer to the most major issues of the day, namely ILLEGAL immigration.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:34 pmRudy lying? Say it ain't so!
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:46 pmRudy lying? Say it ain’t so!
Comment by Frosty Cupcake — November 2, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
What? oh, Rudy is moving his lips again
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:50 pmThis thread is about Rudy. Please try to keep up, Jake.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:55 pmRudy Goulioni is nothing but a tin horn dictator type. He wants power for the sake of power. This guy has no more brain than Dubya and we all know he's not the shapest tool in the kit. Rudy stop lying you expect us to believe anything you say, when every other word out of your lying mouth is 9-11? Only a moron would continue to use 9-11 as a political prop when the families must be completely sick from hearing you and that idiot Dubya using it 9 billions times a day. Rudy take my advice, stop lying, shave your head and slide on the ice.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:09 pmGiuliani is for government-sponsored health insurance when he got it, right? For the forty years that Giuliani was on the government payroll before being forced to leave his mayoral position (despite his attempt to "extend his tenure" due to the "emergency"), he got his insurance from the government.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:10 pmRudy. Exactly like W, only meaner.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:10 pm