Wow lots of spam in here all of a sudden. What does this WHO ranking have to do with "fixing the health care problem in the US"? For clarification the "problem" is two fold. First the costs of health care is getting higher every year. I guess inflation shouldn't apply to the medical field the same way it does for EVERYTHING else. Now as I said in my post above, I do think some things should have price caps. Second, not everyone has medical insurance. I fully support increases in Medicare benefits for the elderly and disabled. However, if someone is a lazy sack of feces that thinks they should be able to sit on their couch everyday watching Oprah and eating chocolate, never working a day in their life, that they are somehow owed or deserve medical care then I am sorry but they are just SOL as they should be.
No need to stop there if you're going down that path. Insurance companies have actuarial tables on everything. Tax any activity that results in above-average medical costs. Mandate logging devices in every vehicle and have instantaneous "health tax" on each incident of above-average-risk driving. Health surcharge on all contact sport participants. Double it for football and hockey. Triple it for "extreme" sports. Your cell phone knows when it is moving above a walking pace - health care surcharge whenever it detects movement at driving speeds while in an active state. Health care surcharge on every drive-thru meal. Increase income tax rates for work periods taken as holiday time (stats are clear, "recreating" causes more injury than sitting in a cubicle). There is no end to the fun we could have with this approach...
Hey they could add video cameras in our houses and monitor us 24x7 so if we even talk about doing something against our health.....oh wait that was a book huh? Maybe George Orwell had it right, he just missed the time line by 2.5 decades.
23 July 2009 Editor, The New York Times 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 To the Editor: If an armed man breaks into your house, confiscates money from your wallet, insists that he and his goons are blessed with a grand vision of how you and your family should be provided with health care, and commands you to do as he orders, would you believe his promise to keep armed intruders "out of health care decisions"? ("Text: Obama's Remarks on Health Care," July 22). Of course not. So why isn't the entire country furious at being insulted by Pres. Obama's patently absurd claim that his efforts to give government a greater role in paying for health care will "keep government out of health care decisions"? Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Chairman, Department of Economics George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030
I am Russian, but my health problems continued while we lived in Europe and the United States. So, I'm not comparing the American system to the Soviet System but to the European systems. Also, the Soviet system has declined from even its 1970's shitty heights as the country imploded. Plus, I have a lot of doctors and epidemiologists in my family who practice in America, Europe, and Russia as well as with the WHO. Do you know how those WHO statistics are calculated? They put very heavy weighting on "access". But, by "access" they don't mean actually being able to get adequate medical care in a timely manner. "Access" is ranked highly if the State declares healthcare a "right" and has a single payer system. That's not access. If a country doesn't have this fake "access", it is immediately dinged in the ratings. Look, if health care were better and cheaper in Europe, I'd be cheer leading for it. I mean, have you been to a hospital in Italy? You don't want to.
Exactly! The US has the highest (or very near highest) quality of care available. They rank lower due to not everyone having access. Who doesn't have access though? The poor, the elderly/disabled and the habitually lazy. The "fix" for the US system is NOT government run health care. The "fix" is to help the poor not be poor anymore (education and job placement programs), increase medicare benefits for the elderly and disabled, and as far as the lazy people they don't deserve health care. That may sound cold but the squirrel that gathers no nuts will starve in the winter and that is the way it should be.
Huh. "Health level" is much higher in countries that don't have a 33% obesity rate. That's not a function of medical care. Choice of doctors and amenities? France just limited the ability to choose doctors to cut costs. And I wonder how the UN accounts for the fact that in Britain, women over 65 are denied mammograms and people over 65 are denied dialysis and there's a strict "treat and street" policy even for patients who need overnight care because of a lack of amenities. Meanwhile, in the U.S. we cover stuff like Viagra and infertility treatment. And, of course, 37.5% of the ranking comes from the theoretical "access" that a single payer (that's the "financial fairness" bit) system theoretically provides I'm sorry. Nothing has changed in those stats since the last time I looked at it. Incidentally, Singapore ranks below ITALY? REALLY? Singapore spend only about 4% of GDP on healthcare (less than half of what Italy spends) and gets much better health care outcomes. Government plays a large, but much smarter role in health care in Singapore. It should be ranked above France. However, while the Singapore government subsidizes 80% of basic care, people can add to that out of pocket and from HSA accounts (which are mandatory in Singapore) to get the amount and type of healthcare that they want. WHO defines "fair" as an obligation for somebody ELSE to pay for the healthcare that you want. They love the socialism at the WHO.
Nobody doesn't have healthcare in practice in the United States. It's illegal to deny treatment based on ability to pay. We just don't have that fake "access" where we make medical services a "right" and thereby formally acknowledge the superiority of the Marxist axiom so beloved at the UN: "From each according to his ability to each according to his need."
"Europeans pay for their healthcare systems with pain and suffering. Since this cannot be measured, it cannot be turned into a target, and bureacrats learned that it is the best way to hide the true cost of socialised healthcare. If the accountant can't see it, then it doesn't exist." -Blog entry by Lee Kelly, former British subject, now living in the United States. Another post: "One cost savings in Europe is that they are not Obese. 12% of the French are obese compared to over 30% of Americans. The incidence of chronic, expensive and life-shortening diseases is very high among the obese. This cannot be overstated. They choose a better lifestyle and lifestyle has a very profound effect on your health - an effect that, at some point, cannot be offset with additional medical attention. Beyond that, Europe doesn't trounce us in cost because it's an apples to oranges comparison. If you've had the unfortunate experience of needing complicated procedures in both places, you will know instantly that the availability of more advanced (and more expensive) medical technology and pharmaceuticals is very limited as compared to the U.S. The quality of care is also worse. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, health care spending accounted for 10.9% of GDP in Switzerland, 10.7% in Germany, 9.7% in Canada and 9.5% in France. The U.S. spent 15% for the same time period. But, we also get a lot of optional procedures and are eager to provide our loved ones with the latest medical technology has to offer. Expensive infertility treatments are covered by insurance in the U.S. but are not covered at all in European countries. Same for medication like Viagra (although, I expect France does cover it - love is important and smoking is hell on the vascular system). If I lose a leg, I'm getting the newest, most expensive prosthetic there available and will allow me to continue running - and I'm willing to pay to get it. In France, the wooden stump whittled by a sixth generation stump craftsman on the Normandy coast is all that's available to me. Are we getting what we pay for? I think so. We get so much more. According to the CBO, about half of the increase in healthcare spending in the U.S. over the past few decades is associated with changes in medical care made possible by advances in medical technology. The real problem is that Americans see the new technology and want it, but don't want to pay for it and assume that Europeans are getting it "for free". Most of it, the Europeans are not getting at all or in very limited amounts. Then, there are the claims of "excessive growth" in America's healthcare costs. According to a study conducted by Andrew Biggs, if "excessive growth" is defined as the growth rate above the growth rate of GDP, America's excessive growth since 1990 is not that different from the 23 OECD countries. 1.62% for the OECD vs. 1.66% for the U.S. In fact, the U.S. excessive growth rate ranks 9th of the 23. Is Europe better, faster, cheaper? Hardly." Folks, this is your health and the health of your children. I suffered and I don't want to suffer again and I don't want you and your kids to suffer. Before you <i>irreversibly<i> (because government never gives back ground) commit to handing over something as important as the medical care of your loved ones, you should take some time to consider and learn about the various systems available around the world and take the best from each. But, for God's sake, call your representatives and tell them not just RAM this current bill through congress in the name of political expedience. A change this big and important cannot be written up and crashed on the heads of Americans with so little consideration and debate.
Just found this thread. The OP asks how to fix our health care system, alleging it's broken. You have no idea what a broken health care system is until it's socialized. Living in the US along the Canadian border I have the opportunity to talk to many Canadian citizens. They come here to get their major health care needs taken care of in an expeditious manner. Almost all of them recommend that we do not socialize our health care system.