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Mon 2 May, 2005 07:19 am
1 nation, uninsured
Quote:America doesn't have the world's best health care system, just the most expensive. For those of you who worry about your health and wealth (i.e., everyone), that's mind-bogglingly bad news.
The numbers are grotesque. The U.S. spends 15.5% of its gross domestic product on health care, about $1.7 trillion a year. No other country comes close. Yet for all that money - equal to the entire economic output of France - approximately 45 million Americans go without health insurance.
By the way, in France, which on a per capita basis spends about half what we do on health care, everyone is insured. In fact, under France's universal health system, patients can visit doctors, even specialists, virtually any time they wish.
That explains why thousands of New Yorkers will be converging at scores of sites across the city today to kick off "Cover the Uninsured Week," a nationwide effort to focus attention on the millions of uninsured Americans.
It's a uniquely American event, since in the rest of the industrialized world, where universal coverage is the norm, health care is considered a basic human right. But in the 50 United States, I guess health care is a frill. It shows. We're only No. 22 among industrialized nations in life expectancy (77 years). Japan is No. 1 at 81 years. We're No. 25 in infant mortality rate (6.8 infant deaths per 1,000 births). Sweden leads with only 3.5 deaths per 1,000.
"Somebody's got to step up to the plate and craft a solution for our health care system," said James Tallon, head of the nonprofit United Hospital Fund. "We can't keep letting this problem slip away from us. It affects our ability to compete economically with the rest of the world."
He's got that right. Word from Detroit is that autoworker health care adds $2,500 to the cost of producing every General Motors car. As if it's not tough enough to compete with Japanese automakers, who can count on their government to pay their employee health costs.
America apparently loves its privatized, patchwork health system. Or at least our politicians do, all of them having seen Hillary Clinton's 1994 close encounter with political death when she tried to sell America on national health care. To this day, when asked, she'll only offer up hors d'oeuvre-size ideas on how to tweak the system (e.g., "use more information technology") rather than reform it. Too bad. Our health system is beyond aspirin therapy. It needs open-heart surgery.
Think shifting health spending entirely onto the shoulders of Uncle Sam won't make a difference? Wrong. National health would save us nearly $250 billion a year on administration alone. That's the difference between the 20% we spend on administration versus the 4% to 7% nations like France, Britain and Canada spend.
The reason: In America, hundreds of independent private insurers spend ungodly sums to set up risk pools, create payment schedules and reject insurance claims.
In nations with just one payer - the government - the focus is on service and efficiency. Not only is that cheaper, but it's more equitable, since everyone gets covered. In a modern, industrialized nation, that's how things should be.
It is time for America to wake up and stop listening to the propaganda put out by those who are bleeding us. More expensive is not better.
nix32890
The Medicare system, run by the government is more efficient and far less costly per event than any in the private insurance industry. Of course the industry has and will continue to spend millions in convincing the American public that just the opposite is true. Further millions will be spent to buy "our" congress.
Having been underemployed for years, I went nine years with the same glasses. Not only were the frames held together with wire, the lenses were so out of date that I couldn't see well at night and had to refrain from driving after dark.
I've gone periods with health insurance and periods without. In other words, I've spent a lot of money on health care I didn't receive. I paid for insurance while it was available to me and while I was uninsured I paid for needed healthcare directly. I have never yet received as much care as I've paid for. I'm quite sure I'm not the only one.
Friend of mine, who (like me) is uninsured, recently had a pulmonary embolism. She's hosed, financially.
She's hosed financially. Sad thing is, for all intents and purposes, she should be perfectly healthy. She doesn't drink, she doesn't smoke, she runs and rows (okay, so she's not a real close friend) -- and there she is, laid up in the hospital at 28 with fat, fat bills and no coverage.
It's rough. Even the professional plan available to us (as veterinary students) costs most people upwards of $150/month -- and certain professional necessities, like rabies vaccination, are not covered and don't even count toward the deductible. Prenatal care and childbirth are not covered, either, even though ~80% of prospective veterinarians are women. Those I know who can afford insurance have shopped around and found that in most instances this is the best plan available to us.
Ah, well, wotcha gonna do?
Prenatal care and childbirth are not covered, either, even though ~80% of prospective veterinarians are women.
Wow! I didn't know most vet students were women.
That aside, when you consider how much stress is laid on good pre-natal care, that even one segment of society would refuse to cover it is atrocious.
Quote:Wow! I didn't know most vet students were women.
56 out of 79 in my class, and this is way down from previous years. (I got in in an affirmative action year, I think -- lots of out-of-state males, which used to be a very rare breed.)
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