GUEST BLOG: The Greatest Health Care System??
June 29, 2009 by Ed · 4 Comments
The other day, Senator Richard Shelby (R. Ala.), in a widely publicized statement, expressed concern that in attempting to reform our health care system, the Obama administration is running the risk of wrecking,
“the greatest health care system that the world has ever known.” With all due respect, Senator Shelby has either been blinded by patriotism, has never seriously thought about our health care system, or is intentionally trying to mislead us. There is no standard (except perhaps cosmetic surgery) by which the current United States system of health
care could be considered the best system in the world today, let alone over the rest of history. http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf
The primary problem with our system is its enormous cost. In March, 2009, Fox News reported that a study by the Business Roundtable (BR) had declared our current health care system “disproportionately expensive.”
The BR report noted that health care costs account for some 16% of our gross domestic product (GDP), while health care makes up only 6 to 10% of GDP in other advanced countries.
This disparity in costs between the United States and the rest of the world continues to grow. For 2009, the United States Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects health spending to increase 5.5 percent while GDP is expected to decrease 0.2 percent (the first decrease in GDP since 1949), resulting in the largest one-year increase in the health share of GDP in history (from 16.6 percent in 2008 to 17.6 percent in
2009).
Measured by health care costs per person, ours still is the most costly in the world. During 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available, health care here annually costs $6,096 per person. By contrast, the national system of our next door neighbor, Canada, provides health care for less than half our cost, $3,037 per person. Similarly, the per capita costs of those other dreaded national health care systems in the UK ($2,899) and in Western Europe [(e.g., Germany - $3,523; France - $3464; and Italy ($2,579)] are far lower than ours. Health care in Australia ($3,123), Japan ($2,831), and New Zealand ($2,039) also is far less expensive than here.
As the BR report noted, “Higher U.S. spending funnels away resources that could be invested elsewhere in the economy….” This nation’s current gross domestic product is approximately $14 trillion per year. If this nation’s expenditures for health care could be reduced from 16% -18% to 10% of our GDP we would each year have the remaining 6%, more than $700 billion, available for other purposes, or to reduce our deficit.
Americans also pay heavy costs at a personal level. High medical costs are the primary cause of bankruptcy in this country.
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/72/31551/despite-health-insurance-medical-costs-lead-bankruptcy.html
It is especially startling that 78 percent of those declaring bankruptcy because of health costs actually have health insurance. This is so because many health insurance policies provide far less than full protection to the “insureds.” Many have high deductibles and co-payment requirements, and leave some procedures uncovered.
Among people declaring bankruptcy, 77.9 percent had health insurance, and middle-class incomes. Catastrophic illness, such as multiple sclerosis, complicated diabetes, and neurological disorders accounted for high medical costs for hospitalization and pharmacy bills in half and 18.6 percent of all families declaring bankruptcy due to medical bills respectively.
Of course, if the additional expenditures gave us better health care, most of us presumably would agree that the results are worth the high price, at least to those of us who can afford the high cost. Unfortunately, however, this is not the case. Fox News quoted an author of the Business Roundtable report was reported by as saying, “Spending more would not be a problem if our health scores were proportionately higher, but what this study shows is that the U.S. is not getting higher levels of health and quality of care.” The report put it this way: “Other countries spend less on health care and their workers are relatively healthier.”
This indeed is so when we look at life expectancy and infant mortality rates. For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles. True, Americans are living longer than ever. A baby born in the United States in 2004 is projected to live an average of 77.9 years. Even so, the US now ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The story on infant mortality is the same. The National Council of Health Statistics recently noted that the United States health care system ranks 29th in infant mortality, tied with Poland and Slovakia.
All those countries referred to above as having lower health care costs have far better figures than do we concerning life expectancy and infant mortality. Plainly, our system is not working efficiently and is not producing acceptable results. As Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said in response to the infant mortality statistics, “Something is wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries.”
Finally, realize that we have not even yet mentioned one of the most shocking and distinctive realities of our national health care system: some 47 million people in this country have no health insurance of any kind. This disgraceful fact is a byproduct of the priority we have given to having profit-making entities provide health care in this country. The other nations to which we compare ourselves provide national coverage and cover all their citizens. We who place such great value on individualism are willing to disregard 47 million of our brothers and sisters when it comes to health care.
Our system, most expensive in the world, produces the 42nd best life expectancy and the 29th lowest infant mortality rates in the world. It is the primary cause of bankruptcy in the nation and leaves 47 million without coverage. Against this background, the World Health Organisation recently concluded that ours is the 37th greatest in the world.
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html Tell that to Senator Shelby and others who wring their hands about the importance of keeping our system as it is.
Pumpkinvine People, I Heart You.
June 21, 2009 by Julia King · 3 Comments
Good-for-nothing Blogger Gets Actual Job
June 19, 2009 by Julia King · 6 Comments
A couple of people (Okay… ONE. One person.) expressed concern about the lack of new content on my site. It’s true. It’s been a while. I recently took a job and haven’t found (or made) the time to write. Thank you for noticing, One Person. I like that about you!
I don’t know about all of you (“all of you,” apparently meaning One Person’s entire self), but my mind is on health care. I just haven’t figured out a way to write about it without using lots of swear words, so I’m pondering for now…
In the meantime, do your part and make some noise out there about the need for a national health care plan. Single Payer is the way to go, but at the very least we need a public option. It is SO past time for this. Read HERE to be convinced.
Okay, bye. Write to you later, One Person. Hey — I’m working on something about MOTORCYCLES. What do you think of THAT? 
