The Commomwealth Fund has looked at US health care outcomes compared to other nations every other year for 6 years. The result, the US comes in last!
The report summary says,
Among the six nations studied—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2006 and 2004 editions of Mirror, Mirror. Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last on dimensions of access, patient safety, efficiency, and equity.
The summary shows the US per capita health care spending is $6,102. The next highest cost is Canada at $3,165. And the report continues, ...
...
The most notable way the U.S. differs from other countries is the absence of universal health insurance coverage. Other nations ensure the accessibility of care through universal health insurance systems and through better ties between patients and the physician practices that serve as their long-term "medical home.
Read the whole summary here
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19 comments:
Become part of the solution...not an obstructionist.
http://dartmouthdemocrats.blogspot.com/
A solution for our downfall.
Our current system is broken and failng. More and more Americans cannot afford health care. What alternatives are there to the plan presented by the Democrats? Please tell us what anyone else has proposed that you think will work.
Bill, history has proven time and again the Socialism is the velvet glove on the iron fist of Communism.
Our forefathers wanted a less intrusive form of government. government health care is a slap in the face to EVERYTHING they believe in.
I do not care what system might work better, if that system is Socialist in any way.
Here is the REAL math regarding uninsured Americans.
47,000,000 “Uninsured Americans”
- 9,487,000 non citizens
37,513,000 uninsured citizens
- 8,300,000 make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year
- 8,740,000 make more than $75,000 a year.
20,473,000 uninsured citizens making less that $50,000 a year
- 9,212,850 45 percent of uninsured people will be uninsured for less than four months
11,260,150 only 3.75% of the population of the US, how can you call that broken????
To use life expectancy as a guide is no good. Americans on average are the "sloths" of the world, we over eat, over drink, smoke, do drugs and a host of other self inflicted life shortening measures.
If US health care is SOOOOO bad, why do people from all over the world come here for lifesaving operations that cannot be performed in other countries?
Bill if Canada has it so good why do thousands of Canadians travel to the United States daily to receive care they cannot get in their own country? Yes that happens daily, you can google it.
Second, providing low cost housing to welfare families sounded great. They would have clean safe housing and take pride in their homes..... Oh wait, I forget none of that happened and we now have PROJECTS all around the country, run by the GOVERNMENT that are havens for crime, murder, rape and prostitution.
Before we consider government health care, you name ONE social program the government has run well.
People from all over the world come here because we offer the BEST in medical services. We have the best and brightest doctors,surgeons and nurses in the world that went to the world's best medical schools. The problem is not the medical doctors, it is the medical insurance. The people who come over here for medical reasons, probably don't carry a blue cross card. Who pays for their medical problems? It is either their insurance from their country or cash
Doctors are still going to have their own practices. Doctors WILL NOT be government employees. The same way they are not employed by insurance companies NOW. The single payer system is being used today on a smaller scale. Some unions have single payer systems, it is one plan that covers the entire membership, the bigger your local union the more clout you have in NEGOTIATING an insurance price.
And when that care is rationed in an attempt to control costs what happens Ray?
A woman in Canada was refused an operation to unblock a clogged artery in her digestive tract. She was told she had weeks to live and Canada would not perform the operation because it was "elective". She came the the USA and had the operation which saved her life.
Is that what you want? Oh wait, if Canada and the US have the same level of care where are you going to run when services are refused?
Obama admitted, under his plan his grandmother would not receive a hip replacement because she was a cancer survivor and deemed a bad risk.
Obama said under those circumstances the individual would have to pay "out of pocket" for the hip surgery. That is what he ADMITS to, with the way that man double speaks you know the actual results will be far worse.
Finally some truth talk. Thanks for the thread. You keep me going. It is hard to maintain common sense in this Obama world.
Bill, the alternative is to create jobs for everyone. That is the best medicine for all. People don't complain about healthcare when they are working and have an opportunity to get coverage through an employer. Obama promised jobs and so far it is all talk. His plan along with the Democrats is not working. Time to change it up drastically. Cut taxes across the board to stimulate growth and business activity. It is proven already in our history.
Our current system is broken and failng
Broke and failIng. Bill when and if you have ever and will ever require medical attention to which country will you fly to to get it? I bet, most likely, that you will go by car (40 miles North)to some of the BEST medical facilities in the world. I may be wrong, so please tell me which country.
You also mentioned more and more Americans can not afford health care. Perhaps if NAFTA was never enacted there would be more employers here to pay for their medical insurance, but thats another story now buried in the past.
So back to FREE healthcare, I fail to see how going to HOSPICE and being provided pain pills until you die is a good reason to accept FREE healthcare. seems a bit more broken to me and no doubt more expensive. Hopefully its run as well as the remaining RMVs.
I believe the premise of your argument that our system is broken and failing must be false...
The premise is a good tug on human emotion, but little more than that.
Our HCS is like many things, not perfect, fragile and always existing with the possibilities of getting worse.
your buddy,
Eric B.
The instances you write about are the exception not the rule. Our insurance companies in the USA deny care also. Who paid for that woman who came here from Canada for "elective" surgery? Was it BC/BS? Or was it cash..the majority of people who come to the USA from other countries for medical services pay for it with CASH.
The U.S. insurance and drug companies are the problem, not the doctors. We have the best doctors in the world but we don't have the highest infant mortality rate or the highest life expectancy. More than 40 million Americans are without health insurance. They don't get it through their employer and either have too high an income to qualify for Medicare or too little in income to afford to pay for their own. People drive to Canada to buy drugs because they can't afford the cost here. The choice for them is food or prescription drugs.
I'm sure you can find those who think current practice in the U.S. is great while people from other countries would argue that their health care is better. The current health care in the U.S. is going up daily and is a big reason for failing businesses. It's not working.
Those of you here who are against government health insurance...will you still sign up for Medicare when you reach 62? I think you will.
According to the CIA's World Fact Book, est for 2009:The number of deaths of infants under age one per 1000 births the same year reports that the U.S. is at 6.26. This figure of deaths of infants per 1000 is lower in Spain, Portugal, S. Korea, Canada, Germany, Norway, Cuba, France, U.K., European Union, Japan, Bermuda, Italy...just to name a few. That is a disgrace considering how much we spend for health care in this country!
I will never forget when, 12 years ago, I went to the pharmacy to pick up one bottle of pills for my eighty-year-old mother. I wrote out a check for $100+ dollars.
The young woman next to me picked up three prescriptions. I didn't know her circumstances, obviously, nor what her medications were. But I do remember her cost for all three. It is etched in my brain: $1.50.
I agree the infant mortality rate in the country looks bad. Take a closer look at it and you will find MANY mothers to be in this country abuse drugs, coffee, cigarettes and alcohol while pregnant.
Many more do not seek out the prenatal care that they should, not because they cannot afford it, but because they are too busy doing other things.
Comparing things like infant mortality and life span would be great if all things were equal but they are not.
Americans are the laziest, most overweight, drug addicted society in the world. THAT is why we die sooner.
to anon 10:42 - that person that paid 1.50 was probably on medicaid, I know someone on disability because of Lupis and all sorts of other ailments and she pays $1 a perscription right now.
10:45, and THAT is one reason our premiums go up. We are subsidizing the medical treatment of individuals who could have and should have prevented the onset of their medical problems, in many instances, at least.
If we know the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse and know the dangers of being overweight, why do so many people still choose to ignore the fact that they are placing their health in danger, not to mention making us all pay more for our health insurance, not that the latter would conceivably enter their mind.
to Long time resident. I am not willing to throw out the baby with the bath water.
We are talking about less than 2 infants per thousand or a .002 percent difference in infant mortality, most of which can be explained by life style choices.
If you want to mourn dead babies lets count the tens of millions of babies that are aborted each year. That in itself is a crime in a civilized society.
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