The AP recently published a story entitled "Europe's free, state-run health care has drawbacks," which other posters on here have accurately labeled a "hit piece" on European-style health care. However, in addition to the clear bias in this article, it also contains a shady citation to a corporate-funded think tank.
The reference in this article to International Policy Network is not merely one to just any London think-tank (see http://tinyurl.com/... ). I wrote this letter to AP partly about this issue and urge others to do the same at ap@info.org. It also seems that Cheng has cited IPN in other medical articles under a similar guise (see http://tinyurl.com/... ).
Greetings,
I was struck by the bias evident in Maria Cheng's article, "Europe's free, state-run health care has drawbacks."
To its credit, the article notes the most basic facts on the issue, including the cost as a percentage of GDP of health care in America and Europe and overall rankings of health care systems.
However, the importance allotted to these facts is very far off. For example, having noted that the US is spending roughly twice as much as France on health care in one paragraph, it then devotes the next seven paragraphs to discussing the "high cost" of health care in European countries. As supporting evidence it cites the total French health care deficit of $69 billion. But a quick calculation shows that to reach US spending levels per capita, an increase of perhaps $200 billion every year would be required here.
Unnamed "critics" and experts are also cited six or more times, and only once in support of the European health systems. Finally, the article concludes by citing International Policy Network, a corporate-funded London-based think tank whose health care project "encourages discussion of the role of market institutions in improving human health" as its main goal. The citation is, however, presented as neutral.
In summary, there are some big problems with this article. I could hardly envision a reversed situation criticizing the US health care system compared with Europe from the AP, suggesting possible widespread bias. I hope you can control this in the future.
Sincerely,
<Name Removed>
New Jersey, USA
Of course, not being a member of the notary public, I got no response despite sending a follow up later. Hopefully together we can do better.