FA_Q2
Gold Member
the US rankings in things like 'preventable mortality' are almost all due to lifestyle over healthcare. The largest problem that Americans have is that we are a culture of excess and extreme. We do not want a hamburger - we want the XXXXL BACON BUSTER BURGER with a large side of lard. We use an inordinate amount of drugs and do things to the most extreme way we can.Does it matter? As you say, inter-country comparisons are inherently flawed. Happiness indexes? What a bunch of nonsense.But... if you read the post... the WHO ranking was crap. Just garbage. Our health care system is one of the best in the world by any intelligent measure.
During the Cold War these kind of comparisons were used as a literal weapon of war. No one rational would have preferred the USSR to the USA, but the constant criticism of the treatment of black people in America was a good weapon for the Commies. Good recruiting material. How much did these criticisms factor into our civil rights advancements? Hard to say, but I can't believe it was irrelevant.
Fair or accurate is not what matters. These things either have legs, or they don't. You don't agree with the WHO? You're free to say so on a forum board, but their claims get a little broader dissemination. That's power in the 20th/21st Century. Countries and organizations use their credibility to advance their interests. Sometimes these attempts are laughable, like North Korea, sometimes, whether accurate or not, they gain traction.
Yeah.... I see the point your trying to make.... but by any measurement, blacks became worse off after the civil rights movements.
Similarly, I think changes to our health care would do massive harm to our health care system. In fact, I would argue it's already doing harm.
You might want to familiarize yourself with the Commonwealth Fund studies of national health care systems....
I have thanks. Have you? Did you read the one where they discovered that the US has more preventative care than any other country in the world?
Might want to familiarize yourself with that.
Really?
And yet the US ranks near last for "preventable mortality" among the nations studied....