Lives at Risk, is a definitive analysis of single-payer health care systems, especially managed competition – the centerpiece of Sen. John Kerry’s health care proposals. Lives at Risk shows that national single-payer health care systems in countries such as Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have not delivered on the promise of a right to health care.

Evidence presented in Lives at Risk shows that patients in single-payer countries routinely face a reduction in the quality of health care:

• Lower quality of care, especially for the sick.
• Lack of access to the best doctors and medicines.
• Lack of access to new medical technology.
• Unreasonable waiting periods.

Single-payer health care systems, including Sen. Kerry’s managed competition model, lead to some of the same bad consequences as national health insurance – too many services for the healthy and too few for the sick and the poor.