Despite the left’s insistence that the American health care system is less effective than health care systems of Europe, the US cancer death rate has plummeted a shocking 20 percent since 1991. While over 500,000 are projected to die from cancer this year, that number is down dramatically from 1991, thanks to new medication development, a drop off in the number of smokers, and better diagnostic accuracy.

According to the American Cancer Society, death rates from cancer dropped 24 percent in men and 16 percent in women. The largest drop was in prostate cancer death; thanks to better screening and new treatment, prostate cancer deaths are down a full 40 percent. Even for more virulent cancers like breast cancer and lung cancer, death rates are down 30 percent.

Such a drop is not likely to continue under Obamacare. Thanks to restrictions on drug companies, a drop in the number of doctors going into the field, and higher costs for treatment, Americans can look forward to stagnation in medical development. There is a reason that the vast majority of medical patents originate in the United States; that may no longer be the case after the Obama takeover of the health care industry.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).