Because government-run medicine dampens their access to the latest drugs.

British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today.

While more than half of patients in France, Spain, Germany and Italy have access to new treatments provided since 1985, the proportion in the UK is four out of 10.

French women with cancer are 34 per cent more likely than those in the UK to still be alive five years after being diagnosed, while French male patients have a 23 per cent higher survival rate after the same period.

The report into cancer treatment in 25 countries found the uptake of newer cancer drugs was “low and slow” in the UK as well as New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic and South Africa.

Its Swedish authors from the influential Karolinska Institute added that there was “no evidence” that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) was meeting its objective of avoiding significant delays in introducing new treatments.

The kicker:

The proportion of colorectal cancer patients with access to the drug Avastin was 10 times higher in the US than it was in Europe, with the UK having a lower uptake than the European average.

Socialized medicine is killing people with it’s inefficiency, but let’s go ahead and bring it to the US.  That’s a good idea.