Does anyone know the reason we love our existing healthcare??

[rightwinger]

As we continue to water down our revised healthcare bill, the US falls further and further behind other industrialized countries. The US is the richest country in the world. Countries such as Germany, Japan, Italy, France and England that we bailed out after WWII now provide superior healthcare to the US.

Why shouldn't the US lead the world in how well we treat our people?

Don't settle for triage | APP.com | Asbury Park Press

Few would argue that the United States doesn't have some of the best hospitals, specialists and technology in the world. Most people like their doctors. Most people who have never had to battle their health insurers or hospitals over bills or coverages find little fault with them.

But a 2000 World Health Organization study of health care in 191 countries ranked the United States 37th, behind most advanced Western democracies. A 2007 Commonwealth Fund study comparing health care in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Great Britain ranked us last or next to last on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it.

A 2008 mortality study in the journal Health Affairs found the U.S. had the highest rate of deaths among 19 countries from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully. The Urban Institute released a study this month that found the U.S. performed better than other advanced nations in some areas and worse than in others. The study noted that only 45 percent of Americans thought the U.S. had the world's best health care.
The American system does some things well, and others not so well. We are the only advanced nation in the world without universal coverage. Access to care and the quality of care are far more uneven than in western Europe and some Asian nations. We have high rates of infant mortality, rank near the bottom of industrialized nations in healthy life expectancy at age 60, fare poorly in coordinating the care of the chronically ill and have a higher incidence of fatal surgical and medical mistakes.

At the very least, the American health care system has considerable room for improvement. And that's before we begin to talk about access to care, cost of care — the U.S. spends twice more per-capita on health care than any other nation — and the mind-numbing bureaucratic waste.

The debate needs to get beyond the fear-mongering and the belief that to look to European models for answers moves us toward socialized medicine. That is patent nonsense. There are nearly as many different models in Europe as there are countries, and many of those nations — Germany, France, Italy, to name a few — have features worth emulating. And almost all of them are built around private insurers.

Our health care system is broken. The reforms on the table today don't go far enough to repair the damage. And given the tenor in Washington and the belief that more compromises to what's on the table now will be needed to get any bill passed, it's likely any reforms will be weak medicine at best.
Citizens need to do their homework. They need to take a hard look at our system, compare it with others and insist our politicians come up with a patient-centered model rooted in improved access and care, reduced bureaucracy and transparency in billing and health outcomes. The system should build on what we do well and borrow from what others do better.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

 

[WillowTree]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

I know, I know.. Choose me>>> He went to the 37th best country in the world. Yes he by golly did. you betcha!

 

[Fatality]

As we continue to water down our revised healthcare bill, the US falls further and further behind other industrialized countries.

prattle of the dead alert

 

[rightwinger]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

And you think this constitutes a comeback.

A healthcare system where only multimillionaires receive proper treatment? What about the guy earning $20K per year? Hows his treatment?

 

[Fatality]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

And you think this constitutes a comeback.

A healthcare system where only multimillionaires receive proper treatment? What about the guy earning $20K per year? Hows his treatment?

better than if some fuck like you was controlling his life

 

[alan1]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

And not only that, he went to the redneck, hillbilly, bumpkin south to get the best damn treatment in the world.

 

[AllieBaba]

Rightwinger, your very name labels you as a liar. You're no more a rightwinger than Obama is. And the truth is, America has the best healthcare in the world. Just saying it ain't so doesn't change the truth.

 

[rightwinger]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

And you think this constitutes a comeback.

A healthcare system where only multimillionaires receive proper treatment? What about the guy earning $20K per year? Hows his treatment?

better than if some fuck like you was controlling his life

That person trying to raise a family on $20K per year in England or Canada only needs to show his healtcare card and receives top level treatment. In this country, he can go to an emergency room and claim poverty.

" A 2008 mortality study in the journal Health Affairs found the U.S. had the highest rate of deaths among 19 countries from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully "

 

[bodecea]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhulzGzcr3g]YouTube - Hitler Finds Out Ted Kennedy Is Dead[/ame]

Here...this is for you.

 

[rightwinger]

Rightwinger, your very name labels you as a liar. You're no more a rightwinger than Obama is. And the truth is, America has the best healthcare in the world. Just saying it ain't so doesn't change the truth.

You are the one just saying so......no independent statistics verify your claim

 

[AllieBaba]

And you think this constitutes a comeback.

A healthcare system where only multimillionaires receive proper treatment? What about the guy earning $20K per year? Hows his treatment?

better than if some fuck like you was controlling his life

That person trying to raise a family on $20K per year in England or Canada only needs to show his healtcare card and receives top level treatment. In this country, he can go to an emergency room and claim poverty.

" A 2008 mortality study in the journal Health Affairs found the U.S. had the highest rate of deaths among 19 countries from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully "

The US mortality rates show as higher because we actually have a system that reports them.

Unlike, say, Somalia, where they aren't recorded.

and where's your link, dumbfuck?

Likewise, I'm sure Canadians have adequate care. In the 6 months or so after diagnosis when they actually get to start their treatment.

 

[rightwinger]

The US mortality rates show as higher because we actually have a system that reports them.

Unlike, say, Somalia, where they aren't recorded.

You are bragging that we have a better mortality rate than Somalia???

 

[Fatality]

And you think this constitutes a comeback.

A healthcare system where only multimillionaires receive proper treatment? What about the guy earning $20K per year? Hows his treatment?

better than if some fuck like you was controlling his life

That person trying to raise a family on $20K per year in England or Canada only needs to show his healtcare card and receives top level treatment. In this country, he can go to an emergency room and claim poverty.

" A 2008 mortality study in the journal Health Affairs found the U.S. had the highest rate of deaths among 19 countries from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully "

the person in england only making 20k a year would be making a hell of a lot more if shit for brains assholes like you werent fucking up his life.

 

[AllieBaba]

Fact No. 1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers.[1] Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.

Fact No. 2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians.[2] Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher than in the United States.

Fact No. 3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries.[3] Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons and 17 percent of Italians receive them.

Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians.[4] Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer:

Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.
More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).
Fact No. 5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report "excellent" health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent). Conversely, white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as "fair or poor."[5]

Fact No. 6: Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the U.K. Canadian and British patients wait about twice as long - sometimes more than a year - to see a specialist, to have elective surgery like hip replacements or to get radiation treatment for cancer.[6] All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada.[7] In England, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.[8]

Fact No. 7: People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70 percent of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British adults say their health system needs either "fundamental change" or "complete rebuilding."[9]

Fact No. 8: Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians. When asked about their own health care instead of the "health care system," more than half of Americans (51.3 percent) are very satisfied with their health care services, compared to only 41.5 percent of Canadians; a lower proportion of Americans are dissatisfied (6.8 percent) than Canadians (8.5 percent).[10]

Fact No. 9: Americans have much better access to important new technologies like medical imaging than patients in Canada or the U.K. Maligned as a waste by economists and policymakers naïve to actual medical practice, an overwhelming majority of leading American physicians identified computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the most important medical innovations for improving patient care during the previous decade.[11] [See the table.] The United States has 34 CT scanners per million Americans, compared to 12 in Canada and eight in Britain. The United States has nearly 27 MRI machines per million compared to about 6 per million in Canada and Britain.[12]

Fact No. 10: Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations.[13] The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single developed country.[14] Since the mid-1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to American residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined.[15] In only five of the past 34 years did a scientist living in America not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the United States.[16] [See the table.]

Conclusion. Despite serious challenges, such as escalating costs and the uninsured, the U.S. health care system compares favorably to those in other developed countries.

Scott W. Atlas, M.D., is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at the Stanford University Medical Center. A version of this article appeared previously in the February 18, 2009, Washington Times.

NEJM -- Quality of Care in U.S. Hospitals as Reflected by Standardized Measures, 2002-2004

 

[AllieBaba]

The US mortality rates show as higher because we actually have a system that reports them.

Unlike, say, Somalia, where they aren't recorded.

You are bragging that we have a better mortality rate than Somalia???

No, I'm saying you're full of shit.

 

[namvet]

As we continue to water down our revised healthcare bill, the US falls further and further behind other industrialized countries. The US is the richest country in the world. Countries such as Germany, Japan, Italy, France and England that we bailed out after WWII now provide superior healthcare to the US.

Why shouldn't the US lead the world in how well we treat our people?

Don't settle for triage | APP.com | Asbury Park Press

Few would argue that the United States doesn't have some of the best hospitals, specialists and technology in the world. Most people like their doctors. Most people who have never had to battle their health insurers or hospitals over bills or coverages find little fault with them.

But a 2000 World Health Organization study of health care in 191 countries ranked the United States 37th, behind most advanced Western democracies. A 2007 Commonwealth Fund study comparing health care in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Great Britain ranked us last or next to last on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it.

A 2008 mortality study in the journal Health Affairs found the U.S. had the highest rate of deaths among 19 countries from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully. The Urban Institute released a study this month that found the U.S. performed better than other advanced nations in some areas and worse than in others. The study noted that only 45 percent of Americans thought the U.S. had the world's best health care.
The American system does some things well, and others not so well. We are the only advanced nation in the world without universal coverage. Access to care and the quality of care are far more uneven than in western Europe and some Asian nations. We have high rates of infant mortality, rank near the bottom of industrialized nations in healthy life expectancy at age 60, fare poorly in coordinating the care of the chronically ill and have a higher incidence of fatal surgical and medical mistakes.

At the very least, the American health care system has considerable room for improvement. And that's before we begin to talk about access to care, cost of care — the U.S. spends twice more per-capita on health care than any other nation — and the mind-numbing bureaucratic waste.

The debate needs to get beyond the fear-mongering and the belief that to look to European models for answers moves us toward socialized medicine. That is patent nonsense. There are nearly as many different models in Europe as there are countries, and many of those nations — Germany, France, Italy, to name a few — have features worth emulating. And almost all of them are built around private insurers.

Our health care system is broken. The reforms on the table today don't go far enough to repair the damage. And given the tenor in Washington and the belief that more compromises to what's on the table now will be needed to get any bill passed, it's likely any reforms will be weak medicine at best.
Citizens need to do their homework. They need to take a hard look at our system, compare it with others and insist our politicians come up with a patient-centered model rooted in improved access and care, reduced bureaucracy and transparency in billing and health outcomes. The system should build on what we do well and borrow from what others do better.

Countries such as Germany, Japan, Italy, France and England that we bailed out after WWII now provide superior healthcare to the US.

you need more reseach - these countries are the worst. 2 weeks ago in England the gov had to apologize for the deaths of over 400 that died waiting for care. add to it pregnant women are giving birth out on the side walks because of denied service. and why, if i may ask are Canadians now coming down here for heathcare????

Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care

Authors Amy Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, and Ryan Balis, a National Center policy analyst, tell 100 agonizing, real-life stories of victims in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and elsewhere who struggled to access government health services and sometimes died stuck on long government waiting lists.

[URL="http://www.rightsidenews.com/200908246153/culture-wars/shattered-lives-100-victims-of-government-health-care.html"]source[/URL]

you know what i pay for healthcare???? zero. and I can choose any doc i want with no delays. so you keep your rotton social care and ill keep mine. agreed???

 

[namvet]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhulzGzcr3g]YouTube - Hitler Finds Out Ted Kennedy Is Dead[/ame]

Here...this is for you.

good one. i love these Hitler vids. you get a rep pal

 

[code1211]

As we continue to water down our revised healthcare bill, the US falls further and further behind other industrialized countries. The US is the richest country in the world. Countries such as Germany, Japan, Italy, France and England that we bailed out after WWII now provide superior healthcare to the US.

Why shouldn't the US lead the world in how well we treat our people?

Don't settle for triage | APP.com | Asbury Park Press

Few would argue that the United States doesn't have some of the best hospitals, specialists and technology in the world. Most people like their doctors. Most people who have never had to battle their health insurers or hospitals over bills or coverages find little fault with them.

But a 2000 World Health Organization study of health care in 191 countries ranked the United States 37th, behind most advanced Western democracies. A 2007 Commonwealth Fund study comparing health care in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Great Britain ranked us last or next to last on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it.

A 2008 mortality study in the journal Health Affairs found the U.S. had the highest rate of deaths among 19 countries from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully. The Urban Institute released a study this month that found the U.S. performed better than other advanced nations in some areas and worse than in others. The study noted that only 45 percent of Americans thought the U.S. had the world's best health care.
The American system does some things well, and others not so well. We are the only advanced nation in the world without universal coverage. Access to care and the quality of care are far more uneven than in western Europe and some Asian nations. We have high rates of infant mortality, rank near the bottom of industrialized nations in healthy life expectancy at age 60, fare poorly in coordinating the care of the chronically ill and have a higher incidence of fatal surgical and medical mistakes.

At the very least, the American health care system has considerable room for improvement. And that's before we begin to talk about access to care, cost of care — the U.S. spends twice more per-capita on health care than any other nation — and the mind-numbing bureaucratic waste.

The debate needs to get beyond the fear-mongering and the belief that to look to European models for answers moves us toward socialized medicine. That is patent nonsense. There are nearly as many different models in Europe as there are countries, and many of those nations — Germany, France, Italy, to name a few — have features worth emulating. And almost all of them are built around private insurers.

Our health care system is broken. The reforms on the table today don't go far enough to repair the damage. And given the tenor in Washington and the belief that more compromises to what's on the table now will be needed to get any bill passed, it's likely any reforms will be weak medicine at best.
Citizens need to do their homework. They need to take a hard look at our system, compare it with others and insist our politicians come up with a patient-centered model rooted in improved access and care, reduced bureaucracy and transparency in billing and health outcomes. The system should build on what we do well and borrow from what others do better.

Something that I find interesting about this debate is that the USA has one of the lowest rates of Smoking among adults in the industrialized world and is lagging behind the rest of the world in outcomes of sickness.

What is it about smoking that promotes better health?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Remind me again, which country did Multimillionaire Ted Kennedy go to for treatment?

Ok, so let's concede that the US is a great place to get healthcare if you're a multi-millionaire,

then we can move on to the 99 plus percent of the population who aren't mulit-millionaires and talk about their healthcare.