Giuliani Campaign Press Release - Giuliani Ad Facts: "Chances"

AD FACT:

RUDY GIULIANI: "I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United States, 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England, only 44% under socialized medicine."

BACKGROUND:

"The Survival Rate For Prostate Cancer Is 81.2 Percent Here, Yet … 44.3 Percent In England—A Striking Variation." (David Gratzer, "The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care," City Journal, Summer 2007)

AD FACT:

RUDY GIULIANI: "You and I should be making the decisions about what kind of health care we get with our doctors, not with a government bureaucrat. What we need to do is to give people a $15,000 deduction for a family, a $7500 deduction for an individual so they can go out and by their own health insurance."

BACKGROUND:

As Part Of His 12 Commitments To The American People, Mayor Giuliani Has Proposed Tax Exemptions For Individuals Who Purchase Health Insurance On Their Own. GIULIANI: "What I'm recommending is that we give a big incentive for Americans, right at the very beginning, to go get their own health insurance. How do you do it? You create a $15,000 tax exemption for a family. $7,500 for a single individual. That could be converted into a family when a person gets married, starts to have children. You get that write-off on your taxes right off the top." (Mayor Giuliani, Town Hall Meeting, Rochester, NH, 7/31/07)

AD FACT:

RUDY GIULIANI: "If we do that, and we end up with a market of 50, 60 million Americans buying their own health insurance, without a mandate, the cost of health insurance will come down and the quality will come up.

RUDY GIULIANI: "Government has never been able to reduce costs. Government never increases quality".

RUDY GIULIANI: "We have the best health care system in the world. We just have to make it better."

VOICEOVER: "Rudy Giuliani. Leadership. Principle. Results."

RUDY GIULIANI: "I'm Rudy Giuliani and I approved this message."

VOICEOVER: "Paid for by Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee Incorporated. Visit joinrudy2008.com"

BACKGROUND:

Free Market Principles Reduce The Cost Of Products And Improve Their Quality. Mayor Giuliani: "Let me give you an example totally from the free-market. Television sets. When television sets first came out, they cost a lot of money, right? When plasma TVs first came out, big advance, they cost 15,000, 20,000—way beyond the scope of the average consumer. The same plasma TVs now cost $2,000—$1,500 to $2-3,000. They used to cost 15,000. And the plasma TVs are better. The cheaper ones are better than the more expensive ones. How does that happen? It happens because of the market. It happens because there's a free market. It happens because there are lots of empowered consumers and the more you reduce the price the owners and operators realize the more consumers you get. So they begin to reduce the price lower and lower and lower; more people get into the market; as more people get into the market they reduce the price more because now you can make up what you're losing in profit on one TV by selling numerous TVs. Now how do you get that working in health care? Here's the thing that's wrong with health care and here's why those costs are going way out of control—because health care in America is basically an employer-government model. Most people are covered by their—by the government, Medicare and Medicaid, or by their employer. What we need is individual consumers in health care. We need you to know as much about and make as many decisions about your health insurance as you make about your auto insurance or your home owners insurance. You need to be empowered to consume." (Mayor Giuliani, Townhall Meeting, Concord, NH, 7/10/07)

Lasik Eye Surgery Costs Have Fallen Dramatically Since Being First Introduced. "The success of laser eye surgery provides a prime example of how employing free market solutions can help curb skyrocketing health care expenditures, explains economist Alex Tabarrrok. The cost of the operation, which is not covered by insurance, not covered by Medicaid or Medicare, and not heavily regulated, has fallen by 38 percent in nominal terms since 1998." (The Heritage Foundation's "Policy Blog," www.heritage.org, 11/23/04, Accessed 10/25/07)

Economist Alex Tabarrok: "In 1998 The Average Price Of Laser Eye Surgery Was About $2200 Per Eye. Today [2004] The Average Price Is $1350, That's A Decline Of 38 Percent In Nominal Terms …" (Alex Tabarrok, "Seeing Is Believing (In The Free Market)," "Marginal Revolution" Blog, 11/23/04, Accessed 10/25/07)

That's A 47% Inflation-Adjusted Decrease In Cost. (CPI Inflation Calculator, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl, Accessed 10/25/07)