US leads on deaths from treatable disease More patients die in the US from diseases that could be treated by timely intervention than in any other leading industrialised country, a study by senior health academics showed on Monday. A decade ago, the US had the fourth worst record among a group of 19 industrialised countries in terms of deaths per 100,000 people from diseases that are amenable to treatment. These include infections, treatable cancers, diabetes, and heart and vascular disease, according to Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Over the succeeding five years, the number of such deaths in the US fell from 115 per 100,000 to 110. But other countries improved faster, leaving the US with the worst record, behind Portugal, Ireland and the UK, where the preventable death rate runs at 103 or 104 per 100,000. "If the US performed as well as the top three countries in the study" - France, with 65 deaths per 100,000, and Japan and Australia, both with 71 per 100,000 - "there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths per year," the authors write in the journal Health Affairs. The study looks at preventable deaths below the age of 75 and found that while most countries had made big strides in reducing them over the past decade, with an average fall of 17 per cent, the US experienced only a 4 per cent decline. With the rising cost of healthcare and numbers of uninsured becoming issues in the US presidential campaign, the authors say it is "difficult to disregard the observation" that the slow fall in the US preventable death rate "has coincided with an increase in the uninsured population". Cathy Schoen, senior vice-president of the Commonwealth Fund, which supported the research, said: "It is startling to see the US falling even further behind on this crucial indicator." http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cca1458e-bd8b-11dc-b7e6-0000779fd2ac.html
Perfect example of a study with cherry picked data designed to prove the author's point. It would be just as easy for a conservative group to design a study proving their points.
You raised two points in two sentences. Both are groundless. How was data "cherry picked?" How was the study "designed" to prove the author's point? And if it is just as easy for a "conservative group" to do a similar thing, show us.
"most experts agree that life expectancies are a poor measure of health care, because they are affected by too many exogenous factors like violent crime, poverty, obesity, tobacco and drug use, and other issues unrelated to a countryâs health system. When you compare the outcome for specific diseases such as cancer or heart disease, the United States clearly outperforms the rest of the world. Take prostate cancer, for example. Though American men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than men in other countries, we are less likely to die of it. Fewer than one in five American men with prostate cancer will die from it, but a quarter of Canadian men will, and even more ominously, 57 percent of British men and nearly half of French and German men will. Similar results can be found for other cancers, AIDS and heart disease. When former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi needed heart surgery last year, he didnât go to France, Canada, Cuba or even an Italian hospital â he went to the Cleveland Clinic." from http://www.examiner.com/a-785860~Michael_Tanner__Michael_Moore_goes_sicko_on_health_care_reform.html Any other questions? By the way Bond, nice call on those New Hampshire primaries. he he
No one disputes the fact that the US healthcare is great for Silvio Berlusconi (and anyone else who's rich and famous). I am sure Silvio Berlusconi did not have to deal with Cigna or any other HMO to get the treatement he needed, did he? The problem is that the average Italian has significantly better healthcare than the average american and on top of that it costs them 30-50% less.
Oh and btw that the mortality rate from prostate cancer is better in the US than in other countries is a lie: http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/35/11/690
You've posted an article that more or less shows that the American Health Care system is broken. You and the article failed to mention though, who broke the American health care system - THE US GOVERNMENT. Thats the same US Govt. that you actually think can / will fix it.
Come on Nick, the government did not kill Nataline Sarkisyan, Cigna did, the government does not deny services and claim pre-existing conditions, the Insurance industry does, the government does not try to weed out "bad" (i.e. sick) customers, HMOs do, the government does not "forget" to insure 50 mln americans, the Insurance industry does, the government does not hike health insurance premiums by 10-15% every year, HMOs do (pure profit - see their stock prices), the government does not flood doctors with tens of thousands of insurance forms, thousands of Health Insurance companies do, the government does not bribe doctors with gifts, dinners, trips etc, the drug industry does, the government does not charge americans $200 for the same drug that costs $10 in Canada and Europe, the drug companies do. The governments of Japan, France, Italy, the UK and other countries run their Health Care systems and they are not broken, it's hard to imagine that the american health care system is broken because of the US government which does not even run it. The simple truth is for-profit distribution of Health services does not work, single-payer systems do.
The US govt either ignored or was complicent in the invasion of 30 million uninsured third world illegal aliens who don't pay for health care (so everyone else does through higher prems. annually), and use a disproportionate amount (from work related injuries, pregnancies, and hard luck), they've brought in diseases like leprosy, Chagas, and drug resistant TB, as they are no health checks upon entry. US life expectancy is lowered by illegal aliens. The CDC turns a blind eye. Oh and thank you to FDA for the excellent job on screening all the poison imported from China, NOT. And its also the US govt. that permits drug companies to charge US consumers so much for drugs, while in some (many?) cases preventing consumers from buying cheaper drugs out of country. On on on on . . . .
All fair points although they IMO have very little to do with the fact that the US Health Care system is broken. Other countries have illegal immigration too, other countries import poisonous crap from China, these things do affect the quality and cost of health care but only marginally. I find it hard to believe that if we had no illegals and did not import Chinese crap our Health Care System would not be broken, we would not have 50 mln uninsured americans and the cost of Health Care would be noticably cheaper. I do agree that illegal immigration and our trade with China are huge problems in their own right but it's hardly productive and helpful to blame everything which is wrong with this country on them.