Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by DanaC

An interesting little blog piece comparing experiences of American and British healthcare.

http://jontillman.com/2011/02/22/us-...al-comparison/

Food for thought. I especially liked the comments on "rationing." Why people here in the US don't understand that medical care here is rationed is beyond me. If you are out of work or if your employer doesn't offer health insurance, you are screwed. Health care for low income Americans is abysmal and life expectancies in parts of America - especially the South - are actually dropping. When it comes to life expectancy world wide, I believe the US now stands at 17. And our infant mortality rate compared with that of other nations is a national scandal.

As your article points out, the US spends almost twice the percentage of it's GPD on health care than the UK does (15% vs 8%), yet the UK has universal health coverage for its citizens while a large minority of US citizens go without.

I am baffled by the whining here about how wonderful private medical care in the US is when our system is extremely costly and run for the benefit of big pharma and doctors who play the system for kick backs, etc. The patient is steam rolled in the scramble for the dollar.

Yeah guys, US medical care is just great. NOT!

[DanaC]

It might be sensible, V, but it's sensation that sells.

[Undertoad]

When it comes to life expectancy world wide, I believe the US now stands at 17. And our infant mortality rate compared with that of other nations is a national scandal.

In this post, which is actually posted in this thread, I explain why increased medical spending leads to higher infant mortality rates.

In this post, which appears directly after the above one, I explain why the US is actually #1 in life expectancy.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Yeah guys, US medical care is just great. NOT!

US care is the best in the world for the wealthiest in the world!

Of course, so is anywhere else with modern hospitals, as elite doctors can be flown in from anywhere to anywhere.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Food for thought. I especially liked the comments on "rationing." Why people here in the US don't understand that medical care here is rationed is beyond me. If you are out of work or if your employer doesn't offer health insurance, you are screwed. Health care for low income Americans is abysmal and life expectancies in parts of America - especially the South - are actually dropping. When it comes to life expectancy world wide, I believe the US now stands at 17. And our infant mortality rate compared with that of other nations is a national scandal.

As your article points out, the US spends almost twice the percentage of it's GPD on health care than the UK does (15% vs 8%), yet the UK has universal health coverage for its citizens while a large minority of US citizens go without.

I am baffled by the whining here about how wonderful private medical care in the US is when our system is extremely costly and run for the benefit of big pharma and doctors who play the system for kick backs, etc. The patient is steam rolled in the scramble for the dollar.

Yeah guys, US medical care is just great. NOT!

In the interests of balance, here's another American experience of British healthcare:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26794291...care-uk-vs-us/

As the article says, quality is variable, and I must say that much of my experience of hospitals is better than this, but not all. Emergency and acute care is probably the most problematic in terms of the difficulties the writer encountered. That tends to be where the worst of the staff shortages, bed/ward/hospital hopping and overworked nurses can be found.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Food for thought. ~ As your article ~

Article? Its just a guys opinion on his own blog.

[classicman]

worth reposting...

One big reason our life expectancy lags is that Americans have an unusual tendency to perish in homicides or accidents. We are 12 times more likely than the Japanese to be murdered and nearly twice as likely to be killed in auto wrecks.

In their 2006 book, "The Business of Health," economists Robert L. Ohsfeldt and John E. Schneider set out to determine where the U.S. would rank in life span among developed nations if homicides and accidents are factored out.
Their answer? First place.

[BigV]

so, you're sayin I'm good to go as long as I stay out of cars and away from other people?

[Undertoad]

The reason Americans have a shorter average lifespan is not because of the medical system, but because they lead bigger, riskier, unhealthier lives.

We are John Wayne motherfuckers and we're gonna smoke right up until the day they cut one of our lungs out. We're gonna drive our SUV to go rock climbing and people will celebrate us for it. Guns hell, my buddy went on an automatic weapon training holiday for a week.

Until we are sick, we don't give a shit about health. It's remarkable that we live to 60. Our best and brightest universities are full of people whose weekly goal is to puke their guts out. Our most popular shows highlight risky behavior and we love it. Our biggest healthcare documentary was made by an obese man.

We said regular drinks aren't good enough, what we need is acidified water, fake coloring and sugar. Then we invented a Big Gulp beverage of it, so large that We cannot even finish it. And when we didn't have enough calories to put in it, we figured out how to make sugar out of corn, and we subsidized the farmers to make even more of it.

We invented meth. We didn't invent cocaine, but when it got here we said it just wasn't good enough, and so we figured out how to concentrate it and smoke it.

The only reason we're competitive in longevity at all is that we keep inventing stuff like portable defibrillators to shock us back to health when we cough up a lung at a craps table. We keep inventing medicated splints to put into people's arteries. Bags to cushion us in our cars when we're in a head-on collision with a drunk at 2am. We invented* AIDS, custom-made to lower the life expectancy... and then it only took a decade to get it to the point where it didn't kill you because we got down inventing cures.




*Patient Zero was actually Canadian, but I was on a roll.

[DanaC]

Actually, the portable defibrillator was invented in Northern Ireland.

[Undertoad]

Look, I will not have you coming around and messing up a perfectly fine rant.

[classicman]

... with your stupid facts and stuff

FTFY

[DanaC]

*grins*

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by classicman

Article? Its just a guys opinion on his own blog.

I think the pot is calling the kettle black.

Oh, and a guy's opinion on his own blog meets the definition of "article" as far as I'm concerned. From Merriam Webster online: Article - a nonfictional prose composition usually forming an independent part of a publication (as a magazine).

Might even be in an online publication like a blog.

[classicman]

So basically, I could start my own blog and say whatever I want and cite it?
Uh ... no. I respectfully disagree.