5.2. Re: XVP: Health Care was Re: Are you being cheated on Full Pay Vide
Date: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:23 pm ((PDT))I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who knew our true
health care situation. I couldn't remember the exact place we were and
was conservative in my post on this subject. I was aware how that our
medical was no where near as good as generally perceived in this
country. I must admit I surprised how low we did rate worldwide.
The sad thing is the vast majority of US citizens have no idea the
degree we are brainwashed.> In 2000 the World Health Organization conducted a ranking of health
> care systems worldwide. The US came in 37 out of 191. You can see the
>
> criteria used in the press release at:
> (http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html). Fortunately, we
> came in just ahead of such economic powerhouses as Slovenia (38) and
> Cuba (39) but were beaten by Costa Rica (36), Morocco (29), Columbia
> (22) and Singapore (6). However, no one comes close to us in per
> capita spending on health care (WE'RE #1)!
>
> All those other countries have National Health care ("socialized
> medicine") and yet provide better care at a lower cost than out
> "efficient" free market.
>
> >Before you start knocking Canadian or other health system you should
> >check your facts. Our health system as no rated anywhere in the top
> 15
> >in the world. We have been sold a bunch of baloney. the only thing
> we
> >rank number one in health is cost an our doctors are by far earn
> more
> >than any other country.
> >
Actually our low ranking is not based on quality of care. People who can afford to do so come from all over the world to use the American health care system. Even from Canada.
You don't see many Americans leaving the U.S. to get "better" health care.
And, for that matter, "quality" in an inexact science like medicine is very difficult to measure; criteria for ranking coutries, hospitals, or doctors will determine the ranking, and the criteria, while they MAY seem reasonable, are usually fairly subjective.
The "politics" of the group doing the rankings influences the criteria, after which the rankings are influenced by the prejudices of the those criteria.
Furthermore, even countries with "universal access" to health care may have such a severe physician shortage that many need to travel hours to find ANY physician (not just a specialist, which may not be available at all in some countries), and in third world countries where the poor can only afford to walk to places, this is essentially NO access for those persons.
The U.S. low ranking is due to the more than 40 million people without health insurance, who therefore either can not or do not access the health care system except for emergency care. However, that aspect of the American health care system IS deplorable, and it alone is sufficient to knock us down about 10 or 20 notches!
--BG
ยทยทยท
> At 04:54 PM 8/12/2007, you wrote:
===============