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Title: The United States Does Not Have The Best Health Care System In The World
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Published: Aug 3, 2009
Author: Examiner.com
Post Date: 2009-08-03 18:37:34 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 262
Comments: 20
In fact, it's not even close to being the best health care system in the world. Republicans have fought President Obama on every bill he has worked on and health care reform is no exception. Senator Richard Shelby (R), Alabama, said that President Obama's health care plan is the "first step in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known." Senator Chuck Grassley (R), Iowa, told a constituent in a town hall meeting that if he wanted health insurance to get a job with the government. Perhaps Grassley would like the government to provide 47 million jobs to solve the problem of the uninsured in America. There are several important aspects about the United States health care system that make it one of the worst of all the industrialized nations. First is the cost: The truth is that Americans pay more for health care than any other country in the world and yet the health care Americans receive is ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) 37th in overall performance and 72nd in overall level of health of the 191 nations included in the 2000 study. It's not all bad however, the U.S. is ranked high in catching rare cancers early. In 2008, a report by the Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. last in the quality of health care among the 19 countries compared. The United States has the highest infant mortality rate of all develped countries. And yet, the Commonwealth Fund reports that the U.S. "leads all industrialized countries in the share of national health care expenditures devoted to insurance administration. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized, developed country in the world that does not offer health care to all of its citizens. Medical bills prompt more than 60% of all U.S. bankruptcies according to CNN. Bankruptcies attributed to medical bills increased by nearly 50% from 2001 to 2007. 75% of all people who went bankrupt because of medical bills had health insurance. Private health insurers are in the business of making money and they do, lots of it. One of the ways they continue to make such large profits when the rest of the country is suffering an economic crisis, is by denying people medical care through the use of loopholes. In Texas, a woman with breast cancer needed to have both breasts removed to save her life and her insurance company refused to pay the cost of her surgery due to her pre-existing condition of acne. This is just one example among thousands that have bankrupted Americans who had private health care insurance. Another way the private health insurance companies keep making record profits is by charging Americans more. Insurance premiums have risen at more than twice that of inflation. Worse, according to the NCHC (National Coalition on Health Care), the average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 120% since 2000. Average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments for medications, and co-insurance for physician and hospital visits rose 115% during the same period. Though Republicans like Senator Shelby insist that America has the best health care system in the world, the facts show that that the United States has one of the worst health care systems of all the developed countries in the world. It is clear that cost factors heavily into why the U.S. has one of the worst health care systems in the world. Senator Shelby himself, is a recipient of a public option, though he would deny it to his constituents in Alabama and in the rest of the nation. All federal employees have access to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program which is a system of managed competition. Though private insurance companies provide health care insurance to federal employees, so do labor unions and other employee associations. This creates competition but more importantly, the government pays the greater bulk of your senator's health insurance. In other words, you and I, as taxpayers are paying the bulk of the health care given to Senators and all federal employees, why can't we have the same option? To get an idea of how much your Senator and Congressional representatives in Washington pay for their health insurance premiums, you can find out here. Your senator can choose between an HMO or a Fee for Services insurance plan and there are a large number of options available. Here is just the first page of choices that Senators Shelby and Grassley can choose their public health option from: Health care reform is crucial to the economic success of the United States. When most bankruptcies are caused by medical crises, and 75% of those who went bankrupt because of medical crises had private health insurance, the system is broken. It's certainly not "the best health care system in the world." The second aspect that makes the U.S. health care system one of the worst of all developed nations in the world is the quality of health: The United States ranks only 27th in life expectancy of 189 countries. Of the 30 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations, the United States ranks only 22nd in life expectancy. Only Portugal, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Turkey have lower life expectancy rates than the United States. The United States ranks 25th in infant mortality rates among the 30 OECD nations. Only Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Mexico have higher infant mortality rates than the United States. Conservatives like to compare the U.S. health care system to the health care systems of the U.K., Canada and France as if the Canadian, France and British health systems are not as good as the United States health care system. Canada's life expectancy average is 82.1 years. The life expectancy for citizens of France is 80.9 years and the average life expectancy of those living in the U.K. is 78.9 years. In the United States, the average life expectancy rate is 78.1. But more importantly than life expectancy averages is the fact that in each of those nations, every single citizen has access to health care. The United States is the only developed country in the world that does not offer health care to all of its citizens. The third aspect of why the United States does not have the best health care in the world ties the first and second together and is tremendously important to the future of the United States' economy: Because there are 47 million Americans (and that number will continue to climb) who have no health insurance coverage, emergency rooms are clogged with people who have no other way to get treatment for illnesses such as ear infections, flu, and strep throat. Not only does this contribute to a lower efficiency in emergency rooms for true medical emergencies such as heart attacks, it is enormously expensive. Uninsured Americans have little choice and often turn up in emergency rooms for simple illnesses. Treating a patient in the hospital emergency room for strep throat is very expensive and taxpayers shoulder the burden. While some are afraid that if every American has health insurance through a public option such as the one their Senators enjoy, they will pay the price in taxes, what they should know is that they are already paying the price and the price is much higher than it would be to offer simple public health care options that veterans, government employees and the elderly have. If we continue to ignore the growing number of uninsured people in this country, we are going to continue to pay more in taxes for their care when they end up in the emergency room with a fever and a sore throat than if they were insured with a basic health insurance option like Senator Shelby and Senator Grassley enjoy. One would think that uninsured people could visit a family doctor when they have a fever and sore throat and pay the doctor in cash. But it doesn't work that way. A few years ago, my health insurance company fled the state in the middle of the night leaving me uninsured for several months. As a small business owner, I must pay for my own insurance and I pay more than twice what Senator Shelby does for his entire family for a single person in good health. When I was sick, I tried to get in to see a doctor when I had what turned out to be pneumonia. Even though I told each doctor's office I called that I would pay the bill in cash, none of the physicians would see me because I didn't have health insurance. The United States does not have the best health care system in the world. Even if you have what you think is excellent health care insurance, you cannot be sure that if you have a devastating illness that your insurer will pay for your health care expenses as over 60% of those who had to file bankruptcy found out. Insurance companies are in the business of taking health care premiums from the insured and working doubly hard not to pay out when the client is sick. Former senior executive of Cigna, Wendell Potter told a Senate Committtee in July, "I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick: all so they can satisfy their Wall Street Investors." Potter was the company's top PR executive and reported, "This is a very wealthy industry and they use PR very effectively. They manipulate public opinion and the news media and they have built up these relationships with all these politicians through campaign contributions." The United States does not have the best health care system in the world. The United States ranks behind all other developed nations in the world in life expectancy, infant mortality rates, efficiency, cost and overall care. If the United States continues to deny health care coverage to the 47 million people that are uninsured, the burden of cost on taxpayers will continue to rise as more and more desperate people rely on emergency care at hospitals for routine illnesses. Unless you make $250,000 or more a year, your taxes will not be affected by offering health care coverage to the uninsured in this country. If you are so unlucky as to make a quarter of a million or more a year, I'm afraid your taxes will increase by about 3%. But if we continue to refuse health care services to the 47 million people who are uninsured, your taxes will be much higher in the future as 47 million people rely on hospital emergency rooms for their routine health care needs. It is time for Americans to have a public option like Senator Shelby and Senator Grassley have.
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#5. To: Brian S (#0)
I was suspect of the writer at the above comment, because it has been far more than just "Republicans" fighting Obama on health care reform. I went to find the author (not given by the poster) and discovered that the article had been written by Karen Harper, a self-described "Progressive Politics Examiner". While I agree our present health care system needs improving, I found this author's facts jaded by her progressiveness. It has been my observation that when we had a health care system that worked much better than the one we now have, we let it be turned into "health care for profit", hence the present mess. On the other hand, socialized medicine is not the answer either, as can be confirmed by much more than an evaluation by a "progressive politics examiner".
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestRepublicans have fought President Obama on every bill he has worked on and health care reform is no exception.
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