World's Best Medical Care?
There's been a good deal of talk about health care over the last several presidential election campaigns, and in state contests as well. Apparently there is general agreement in this country that our system is not perfect. Yet despite all the rhetoric, there has been little to no change in health care policies in this country. In 2007, some 45 million Americans remain uninsured and many more Americans face economic ruin should they become seriously injured and find their basic policies not able to cover the huge costs of radical care.
The Bush administration has been reluctant to push for changes to the nation's health care system, arguing that the system is not perfect but that it still delivers the "best care in the world". However, recent studies have found this is not true. According to the New York Times, the World Health Organization ranked France and Italy first and second and the United States 37th out of 191 nations. The highly regarded Commonwealth Fund has compared the United States with other advanced nations through surveys of patients and doctors and analysis of other data, and in its latest report, issued in May, ranked the United States last or next-to-last compared with five other nations — Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it. Other comparative studies also put the United States in a relatively bad light (NYT, 8/12/07).
Some of the findings by the Commonwealth Fund include:
The Bush administration loves to laud the economic growth of the last five years claiming that Americans are better off than ever before. Of course this is not true, but were it, how would President Bush explain that more Americans are uninsured today than ever before if they are so much more prosperous? The truth is that the economic growth the president refers to is for the richer people in this country. As long as our nation's economic policies benefit the rich at the expense of the middle and lower classes (and that doesn't seem likely to change soon), we'll need non-market forces to go to work to change our failing health care system. It's time for Bush and the Republicans in congress to realize that Americans are more likely to die from poor health care than from terrorism, and that it is their responsibility as elected officials to motivate a revamp of our health care system. If we are the nation that truly cares about equality and justice for all, we must make sure that every child and adult can get immediate preventative, urgent, and emergency care without fear of financial ruin. That seems like common sense and essential to the pursuit of happiness.
Feel free to comment.
The Bush administration has been reluctant to push for changes to the nation's health care system, arguing that the system is not perfect but that it still delivers the "best care in the world". However, recent studies have found this is not true. According to the New York Times, the World Health Organization ranked France and Italy first and second and the United States 37th out of 191 nations. The highly regarded Commonwealth Fund has compared the United States with other advanced nations through surveys of patients and doctors and analysis of other data, and in its latest report, issued in May, ranked the United States last or next-to-last compared with five other nations — Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it. Other comparative studies also put the United States in a relatively bad light (NYT, 8/12/07).
Some of the findings by the Commonwealth Fund include:
- Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an emergency room, and many report having to wait six days or more for an appointment with their own doctors.
- The U.S. has the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to richer and poorer citizens.
- The U.S. ranks near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care.
- American doctors and hospitals kill patients through surgical and medical mistakes more often than their counterparts in other industrialized nations.
- The U.S. ranked last in years of potential life lost to circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes and had the second highest death rate from bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.
- One-third of American adults surveyed called for rebuilding the entire system, compared with only 13 percent who feel that way in Britain and 14 percent in Canada.
The Bush administration loves to laud the economic growth of the last five years claiming that Americans are better off than ever before. Of course this is not true, but were it, how would President Bush explain that more Americans are uninsured today than ever before if they are so much more prosperous? The truth is that the economic growth the president refers to is for the richer people in this country. As long as our nation's economic policies benefit the rich at the expense of the middle and lower classes (and that doesn't seem likely to change soon), we'll need non-market forces to go to work to change our failing health care system. It's time for Bush and the Republicans in congress to realize that Americans are more likely to die from poor health care than from terrorism, and that it is their responsibility as elected officials to motivate a revamp of our health care system. If we are the nation that truly cares about equality and justice for all, we must make sure that every child and adult can get immediate preventative, urgent, and emergency care without fear of financial ruin. That seems like common sense and essential to the pursuit of happiness.
Feel free to comment.
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