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Health Care Debate/Debacle.
12 Aug 2009 08:06 pmI have watched with horrified amazement what is going on in the United States over the possibility of improving the health care of the nation as a whole by including more people into a national insurance scheme.
The wonderful misinformation I see about health care outside the USA would be hilariously funny if it wasn't so totally libellous.
I am probably not surprised that there does not appear to be a legal requirement for adverts to be truthful - although they might, in the long term, be more effective if people knew that they could trust them. There again perhaps many Americans don't realise that they cannot believe what they are told in 'infomercials'. I remember being amazed at this when Rudy Giuliani told insulting lies about me and my colleagues in 2007.
So regard this post as a Public Information Announcement.
The internationally accepted measures of the health, and health care, of a nation are usually seen to be the infant mortality rate and the life expectancy. Maternal death rate is seen as a third indicator.
You might be surprised to hear that, using these measure, the USA is not only not the best in the world, as some of your politicians tell you, you don't even make it into the topten forty.
To ensure that figures cannot be considered to be in anyway biased against the USA, these are all from the CIA site - then confirmed them at the World Health Organisation.
Infant mortality - out of 224 countries the USA is 44th. Your baby is more likely to survive if you live in somewhere like Sweden, Japan, Iceland, France, the UK, Anguilla, the Czech Republic, Wallis and Fortuna (!) Cuba - and 34 other places. The top ten ALL, as far as I can ascertain, have some form of National Insurance/ government financed health care system.
Life Expectancy - the USA has only the fiftieth best life expectancy in the world - and guess what? Most of the countries who beat you have socialised health care. Countries like Japan, Canada, France, the UK. Here on the Rock, with only one small National Health hospital and anything bigger requiring transfer by air to, well a UK NHS facility, we still have a better life expectancy...
The third indicator - maternal mortality rate - the statistics are for fewer countries - and in this case the USA just makes it into the top 20 - at 20, again mostly behind countries with 'socialised medical care'. For comparison - in the USA your lifetime chance of maternal death is 1 in 4,800 - it is 1 in 8,200 in the UK with it's scary open to all, free at the point of need, health service.
My favourite example of the amazing misinformation in the US is the person who wrote an editorial for something called Investors Business Daily and said
“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless,”
How wonderfully ridiculous is that? Professor Hawkings, born and bred in the UK, regarded as a Great British Hero, of course, replied, via the Guardian “I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”
As I understand it, because his MND began when he was still a student, he would have been uninsurable under the US system as it stands at the moment...
Personally, I believe all should have equal access to health care, but it is everyone's right to decide on whether they agree or not. I have to say, though, that if I was an American I would hope I had Swedish ancestors, or Japanese ones, and so could return to somewhere with better health care...
OH - and, of course, alongside the NHS Britain has private hospitals and private doctors etc. if people choose to use them...
The wonderful misinformation I see about health care outside the USA would be hilariously funny if it wasn't so totally libellous.
I am probably not surprised that there does not appear to be a legal requirement for adverts to be truthful - although they might, in the long term, be more effective if people knew that they could trust them. There again perhaps many Americans don't realise that they cannot believe what they are told in 'infomercials'. I remember being amazed at this when Rudy Giuliani told insulting lies about me and my colleagues in 2007.
So regard this post as a Public Information Announcement.
The internationally accepted measures of the health, and health care, of a nation are usually seen to be the infant mortality rate and the life expectancy. Maternal death rate is seen as a third indicator.
You might be surprised to hear that, using these measure, the USA is not only not the best in the world, as some of your politicians tell you, you don't even make it into the top
To ensure that figures cannot be considered to be in anyway biased against the USA, these are all from the CIA site - then confirmed them at the World Health Organisation.
Infant mortality - out of 224 countries the USA is 44th. Your baby is more likely to survive if you live in somewhere like Sweden, Japan, Iceland, France, the UK, Anguilla, the Czech Republic, Wallis and Fortuna (!) Cuba - and 34 other places. The top ten ALL, as far as I can ascertain, have some form of National Insurance/ government financed health care system.
Life Expectancy - the USA has only the fiftieth best life expectancy in the world - and guess what? Most of the countries who beat you have socialised health care. Countries like Japan, Canada, France, the UK. Here on the Rock, with only one small National Health hospital and anything bigger requiring transfer by air to, well a UK NHS facility, we still have a better life expectancy...
The third indicator - maternal mortality rate - the statistics are for fewer countries - and in this case the USA just makes it into the top 20 - at 20, again mostly behind countries with 'socialised medical care'. For comparison - in the USA your lifetime chance of maternal death is 1 in 4,800 - it is 1 in 8,200 in the UK with it's scary open to all, free at the point of need, health service.
My favourite example of the amazing misinformation in the US is the person who wrote an editorial for something called Investors Business Daily and said
“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless,”
How wonderfully ridiculous is that? Professor Hawkings, born and bred in the UK, regarded as a Great British Hero, of course, replied, via the Guardian “I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”
As I understand it, because his MND began when he was still a student, he would have been uninsurable under the US system as it stands at the moment...
Personally, I believe all should have equal access to health care, but it is everyone's right to decide on whether they agree or not. I have to say, though, that if I was an American I would hope I had Swedish ancestors, or Japanese ones, and so could return to somewhere with better health care...
OH - and, of course, alongside the NHS Britain has private hospitals and private doctors etc. if people choose to use them...
