It's Not "Health Care," It's Sickness Chaos

Congratulations, America. We just finished last in another survey. No. this isn't about most
athletes on steroids, dumbest celebrity blondes, or even greatest personal or government debt. This survey is about your health and mine.

Compared to 18 other industrialized nations, the U.S. finishes dead last in preventive health
care. And "dead last" is the operative phrase. Compared to the best national health care
systems the American sickness chaos (as opposed to a health care system) causes over 100,000
people to die unnecessarily. Per year. We can't even kill that many people with all our
wars, drunk drivers and uncontrolled handguns combined!

The Commonwealth Fund did this study, and they found that all the other industrialized nations
are showing increasing success at lowering death rates among those needing medical care.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/lsoh-url010408.php

The U.S. is not only behind, but we're making the least progress. The study concludes that one
cause of America's sick treatment of sickness is due to our non-system, the lack of health
coverage for those dying folks. Back in 1997 the U.S. ranked fifteenth, then fell to last place
among 19 nations in 2002 where it's now mired.

The three best nations at keeping their citizens alive? 1) France 2) Japan 3) Australia. That's right, the very same France some politicos love to make fun of. Was it because they wisely
refused to get involved in the Iraq invasion? Or is it because they have so much more vacation than we do? Or their damned Euro is so much stronger than the Bush dollar? I forget why we're supposed to make fun of the French. I do know that once my wife got pneumonia during a winter visit to Paris. Within an hour of our call to the hotel front desk there was a physician in our room. He'd climbed six flights of stairs with no elevator. He never asked if we had insurance
though we did have to pay for the visit and prescriptions.

Here's what the Commonwealth Fund says about their study and how it's conducted across the
industrialized (read "rich") nations: "Study authors state that the measure of deaths
amenable to health care is a valuable indicator of health system performance because it is
sensitive to improved care, including public health initiatives. It considers a range of
conditions from which it is reasonable to expect death to be averted even after the condition
develops. This includes causes such as appendicitis and hypertension, where the medical
nature of the intervention is apparent; it also includes illnesses that can be detected early
with effective screenings such as cervical or colon cancer, and tuberculosis which, while
acquisition is largely driven by socio-economic conditions, is not fatal when treated in a timely
manner.

"Cross-national studies conducted by The Commonwealth Fund indicate that our failure to
cover all Americans results in financial barriers that are much more likely to prevent many U.S.
adults from getting the care they need, compared with adults in other countries," said
Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis. "While no one country provides a perfect model of care, there are many lessons to be learned from the strategies at work abroad."

Let's stop pretending some insurance plan will cure the medical ills that assault us. Our
doctors are grossly overpaid, compared to doctors elsewhere but not compared to basketball pros or movie stars. Get a sense our priorities are skewed? Or is that screwed?

Interested in salary comparisons with Europe?
Try this: http://www.allied-physicians.com/salary_surveys/physician-salaries.htm
Or this: http://mdsalaries.blogspot.com/2007/07/economists-say-american-physicians-are.html

Want to know how Japan does it?
http://www.medhunters.com/articles/healthcareInJapan.html
Hint: it's NOT a free market system by any means. They use that nasty thing called government
regulation. But just because it works for the Japanese...

Our other American sickness problems include obesity and lousy diet. The rest of the world sees us as the fat bullies. Duh.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=676

We pay more for prescription drugs than other nations because our government refuses to
intervene on behalf of the patient. And the insurance industry itself is always getting a
healthy cut. And making life-or-death decisions which neither doctor nor patients can change.

America's public hospitals and their emergency rooms are being crushed. A recent blog by
DemFromCT on dailykos outlined some of the issues, like interminable waiting times at
emergency rooms where the uninsured must go when they can't avoid medical needs. And public hospital bankruptcies may become a hot trend to rival real estate foreclosures.

In short, don't get sick until the feds or your state do something about the sickness chaos.
But, not to worry, all members of Congress have a wonderful, fully-funded healthcare system for
their entire families. Aren't we taxpayers generous?

Comments

[nativist]

The French plan is simple. t's citizens can walk into a doctor's office, be treated and leave. No insurance BS, no forms, no payment. No one is "required" to have insurance, there are no corporations making a profit on people's misery, (which is inherently wrong) and the doctor decides what to do to help you, not some layman in a cubicle. And yet the repugs say that's "Socialized" medicine. All the dems save Kucinich want to keep the insurance pond scum involved.

You're right Harry. It hasn't been this bad since the Gilded Age. The hell with "third parties". It's time for open revolt.

[americanwhocares]

So does the President and Vice President.

[mbaty]

It's good we are talking about this; health care is one of the most pressing issues that this country faces if we are to progress in any real way. And having health insurance isn't enough, especially when preventative care isn't provided or covered. While I believe that healthy citizens create a healthy country (logically) I am skeptical about everyone having to get an insurance plan, and my concern is that the drug companies, whose job is to treat, not cure, will get some sort of no-bid contract so that we can only get the pills the pharmaceuticals are hawking rather than effective treatments or, gasp, cures. Because everything can be cured, everything. And the only reason we don't know about the cures is because they can't be patented, and/or we can't be charged residuals for them.

[montemalone]

Ya'll just can't see the forest for the trees.
The "I've got mine, so screw you" crowd, also known as the selfish, hateful, greedy bastards, couldn't care less about "we the people".
Bush and Cheney and their families are given free government health care. I don't think either one has turned it down. Not Cheney when his mechanical heart periodically craps out ( not even the best technology can survive for long in that poor excuse for a human being), or Bush when they stuck a scope up his backside (aside, even though the results weren't made public, I'm pretty sure the doctor confirmed what we all know, he really is full of shit).
If government paid health care were truly such a threat to the survival of the American way of life, then how about these guys forego this benefit, and fork over the full cost for the treatment. Then let Cheney go out in the free market and purchase some insurance. I'm sure there are lots of companies that want to insure a guy that's had a few heart attacks.

[merrill]

Thank you, Harry Fuller! I hope the candidates are reading your posts! The health care non-system is driven by the greedy insurance industry as much as by old-guard doctors in the medical associations. Gold-diggers, stuck in the '50s and quick to stick the old label "Socialistic" on any kind of regulation, they are the only winners in the current fiasco and big obstacles to reform. Hopefully, if the balance in the legislature shifts to the left a bit, there will be some governmental action to remedy this awful, deadly situation.

[skyloaf]

The state of the US health care industry is the greatest indictment of unrestrained capitalism. It's inhumane but inevitable in a society where compromise is seen as weakness and those who question one extreme policy is automatically seen as a proponent of the other extreme. Health care for all Americans is not socialism; its a moral imperative.

Give em hell, Harry!

[julianne]

The problem is the Congress in Washington and their scumbag insurance-fraud friends. Major carriers COMPETE for their share of American Postal Workers who pay approximately $70.00 every two weeks (includes all family members under 22 years of age). If you are single, it is approximately 1/2 the bi-weekly, family premium. Most Americans could afford that. The Veterans Administration employees pay twice that much (no union) but still well below the national average. And these are Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna (type) policies. If a federal employee leaves government employment and wants to keep the same policy, it goes up to $800 to $1000 a month, or more, for a family. The bottom line is that the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are ripping off the general public right in front of the nose of all the various white trash in Washington who, together, are committing fraud and murder. Let's leave aside the statistics and face the fact that a significant minority of white men in the United States are no damn good. Obama or whoever wins the Presidency doesn't need to "bring them to the table", he or she needs to investigate their criminal usury and put them in jail.

[Danny]

Thank you. This situation needs telling and retelling in this year of presidential choice. What is going on in U.S. health (non-)care is a disgrace. Illness is not a commodity, and health care is a human right, not a for-profit advantage. That is the reason why all other developed countries stand in sharp contrast to ours.

[Merlin7]

See what a great job the Democrats are doing ending the Iraq war? You can expect the same kind of performance in providing universal health care. In short, forget it.

The problem is our outmoded political system, which allows powerful special interests to virtually own Congress and the White House. Our periodic elections are just kabuki theater, just distractions. Nothing will change for the better until we overhaul the system: Break the monopoly held by the Democratic and Republican parties, provide public funding for all elections and sharply restrict private money, ban lobbyists from working in government and vice versa, and other reforms. Until this happens, it really doesn't matter who wins the presidential elections.

[jcorrington]

But I am sick...of what you stated... we have become such a sick sick nation. I truly need a prozac for this sick sick state of affairs.

Thank you for your words tho Mr Fuller and taking on a monstrous travesty. Please dont let the issue die.


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