A lot of donkeys are braying about Rudy Giuliani’s radio ad in which he has the audacity to applaud the American health care system. Specifically, they’re making a din about Hizzoner’s comparison of U.S. and British survival rates relating to prostate cancer:

My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and, thank God, I was cured of it — in the United States? Eighty-two percent. My chance of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 percent under socialized medicine.

So, is “America’s Mayor” fudging the numbers? Are American and English cancer survival rates about the same? Not according to David Gratzer and Clive Crook. Here’s how the former puts it:

The percentage of people diagnosed with prostate cancer who die from it is much higher in Britain than in the United States … 57 percent of Britons diagnosed with prostate cancer died of it; and, consequently, just 43 percent survived.

And here’s how the latter brings the point home:

Nationally, American cancer survival rates are significantly better … And here is the politically salient question: If you have cancer, would you rather be an American with insurance or an Englishman without? The answer is obvious.

Indeed it is. Giuliani’s political ad, like all examples of the genre, makes considerable use of hyperbole. But no matter how much racket the jackasses make, his basic point is irrefutable.