A little perspective

From an article on Pajamas Media, written by Soeren Kern, here's some European reaction to the US health care debate:

[A]nother Independent article titled “Republicans, religion and the triumph of unreason” says: “Here’s what’s actually happening. The U.S. is the only major industrialized country that does not provide regular health care to all its citizens. Instead, they are required to provide for themselves — and 50 million people can’t afford the insurance. As a result, 18,000 U.S. citizens die every year needlessly, because they can’t access the care they require. That’s equivalent to six 9/11s, every year, year on year.”

Shall we put those numbers in a little perspective?

(First of all, my guess is that they are playing fast and loose with the word "citizen", considering a large number of the uninsured are illegal aliens.)

In a nation of 300 million people, that amounts to 6 of 100,000 people.

In 2003, a heat wave struck Europe. It resulted in more than 37,000 deaths across a comparable population--meaning more than 12 in every 100,000 people died. US heat-wave mortality for the years 1999-2003 was 3,442, for an annual average of 688.

The UK had 2,139 deaths due to the heat-wave. In a population of about 60 million, that's every 3.5 out of 100,000 people died.

In 2007 hospital-acquired c-diff infections in the UK claimed the lives of 8,324, or more than 13 of every 100,000 people. (The numbers fell by 29% in 2008.)

This last statistic I have is rather shocking. Looking at cancer deaths in the US, we had 559,303 in 2005, for an death rate of 186 per 100,000. In the UK in 2007, they had 155,484 cancer deaths, for a death rate of 259 per 100,000. A death rate nearly 40% higher than in the US. That means an excess of 43,800 Britons are dying each year due to sub-standard health care.

So, where exactly is there a triumph of unreason, and whose religion is clouding their judgement?