Friday 9 November 2007

Health Care Excuses

Economist Paul Krugman gives us a heads-up on the lies we're going to (continue to) hear about the U.S. health care system:

The United States spends far more on health care per person than any other nation. Yet we have lower life expectancy than most other rich countries. Furthermore, every other advanced country provides all its citizens with health insurance; only in America is a large fraction of the population uninsured or underinsured.

You might think that these facts would make the case for major reform of America’s health care system—reform that would involve, among other things, learning from other countries' experience—irrefutable. Instead, however, apologists for the status quo offer a barrage of excuses for our system's miserable performance.

It's worth a read.

David Braverman, Friday 9 November 2007 18:05:48 UTC
#    Comments [2] |
Wednesday 14 November 2007 02:33:13 UTC
I'm not too clear on Mr. Graham's underlying goals. More here: http://lowsen.com/blog/2007/11/health_care_clarity.html
Ben L.
Wednesday 14 November 2007 04:36:57 UTC
Paul Krugman has it exactly right. The US spends more on helathcare than other industrialized countries, in part because our private health insurance system is so inefficient, with overhaed expenses in the 15-25% range. A good part of these expenses goes toward the wages of persons whose job it is to: 1) put the expence to some other carrier, or, 2) deny coverage for a specific treatment altogether. Our government-run program (Medicare), on the other hand, spends only about 5% on overheads.

And if Americans earn more than the citizens of the UK, Canada, France and Germany, all the more reason to have universal health care coverage. If they can do it so can we!

A single payer, government-run, universal health care plan would: 1) make our industries more competitive; 2) take a moral action by providing coverage for all Americans, and, 3) eliminate a lot of waste and overhead expense. Why don't we do it, if it is so obvious and practical? Mostly because the private insurers and others with vested interests in the current mish-mash of systems use ideological arguments and other misinformation (yes, ideology is what got us into the mess in Iraq) to buy off congressmen and subtly play on the fears of Americans. Its time to throw out the mess and do a complete revamping.

PS: None of the programs programs proposed by the 3 leading democratic candidates for president go to a single payer format. All would simply add on to the current "system". No guts, no glory, IMO.
Charles Skeen
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