GUEST BLOG: The Greatest Health Care System??
June 29, 2009 by Ed
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.
Comments
4 Responses to “GUEST BLOG: The Greatest Health Care System??”
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I live in the United States
I am 62
I am self employed.
I am in good health but my wife has a pacemaker and takes statins.
All I can afford is catastrophic health insurance.
My Blue Shield family plan for my wife and myself costs us $900 a month
The deductible is $8000 per year so I rarely see a doctor unless it’s an emergency.
I have tried every option..even starting my own group plan.
But the premiums would be more than my mortgage payment.
I don’t think I can continue this way, especially with my business being down because of the economy.
I am thinking about canceling my health insurance and taking a chance that I won’t need a heart bypass, get cancer or need a liver transplant.
If I do, I am told I can file for bankruptsy.
Any ideas?
P.S. I envy those who live in Japan, Korea, England, Canada, Taiwan, France, etc etc. Right now I’d settle for a socialized medicine. I might have to wait for treatment but it’s a lot better than the private health insurance plan I have now.
Anyone out there in my shoes whose got a more affordable plan???
Mr. Hall,
You have identified what are probably the two best options available to you under the current system, but you rightly recognize that both of those options are completely unsatisfactory.
Your best course of action is to try to change the system. This could occur soon enough to help you and your wife. The House of Representative has passed a national health care bill. The US Senate is now preparing to consider similar legislation. Your best way of making a difference is to make sure the two Indiana Senators will vote for it, including a public option. Ed
I’m amazed at how opponents of single-payer health care are often the very people who would benefit from it the most. First-hand I’ve heard opponents with no health insurance or with expensive health insurance with high deductibles get super angry at even the mention of single payer. I think they’ve been fed a line that they would be “taken advantage of” by a single payer system, and they’ve bought that idea hook, line, and sinker.
The main arguments I’ve personally heard from opponents are:
1)Single payer is too expensive.
For the majority of us, single payer health care would be far less expensive than the current system when you take into account all the premiums paid over a life-time, the increasingly high deductibles, and the amount of procedures that are not covered. Also included in the individual’s cost are the not-so-obvious costs our personal income taxes are already paying including: Medicare, Medicaid, public employee health insurance, tax breaks to employers who provide health insurance to their employees and health care coverage for military personnel and veterans. So we as citizens and the government are already paying a HUGE cost for health care; we can fund single payer health care for the amount of money being spent to support private health insurance. Also, doesn’t it just make sense that not-for-profit health care would be cheaper than for-profit health care?
2. The government will come between me and my doctor.
I’d rather have the not-for-profit government that is run “by the people” between me and my doctor than a for-profit health insurance industry that makes money by denying me coverage and increasing my premiums, copays, and deductibles. Also, under a single payer system, YOU choose your doctor – ANY doctor. Under private health insurance your insurance company limits your choice of doctors – unless you want to pay more.
3. Under single payer I will have to pay for freeloaders.
Well, maybe so, but you are already paying for “freeloaders.” Under single payer health care much less would come out of your pocket to pay for freeloaders – and you’d get cheaper health care to boot! Also, not everyone who does not have health insurance is a freeloader – many of them are workers (even full-time) who just don’t have access to affordable health insurance or the means to pay for expensive health care directly out-of-pocket.
4. I already have health insurance so I have no problem with the system as it is.
Or so you think! As already stated in this article, the majority (by far) of people who went bankrupt due to medical illness did have health insurance when they got sick. Still they went bankrupt or died for lack of sufficient coverage.
5. I’d have to wait too long for health care under a single payer system. Look at Canada!
Yes, let’s look at Canada. http://www.ryananddebi.com/2008/12/19/healthcare-wait-times-us-vs-canada/ I have not found any evidence showing that wait time for critical care is longer in Canada than in the U.S. For non-emergency surgeries, Canadians do wait longer, but at least everyone there has access to those surgeries – not just the wealthy or those who are well insured.
6. The U.S. has the best health care in the world.
Maybe so, if you can afford it. If you can’t afford it, I’d say we have pretty bad health care.
There are so many other arguments I’ve heard and read, but these are the main ones I’ve personally encountered.
I hope these opponents wake up and realize that single payer health care benefits them personally; private health insurance benefits health insurance companies.
If opponents don’t think health care for all is the right thing to do, consider the fact that single payer health care benefits you personally! (Unless of course you work in the private health insurance industry.)
Well said, Kimber! Maybe you could do a guest blog sometime?