Excellent comparison on the great US Healthcare system the 'status quo' apologists spout off as being the 'best in the world'!....
U. S. health care pales against others
Douglas Turner | Updated: July 13, 2009, 3:42 PM
RIDGEWAY, Ont. — By most accounts, the Canadian Customs inspectors at the Peace Bridge seem a little firmer, less welcoming, even snootier with Yanks than in former years.
Maybe they haven’t fully grasped that Dick Cheney has slipped into an insecure, disclosed location. More likely it’s that they realize Canada has a more effective, more efficient, and less expensive health care system than ours.
By my highly unscientific random survey in this delightful Brigadoon of a village, Canadians either very much like their single-payer system, or don’t strongly oppose it, except for the taxes required to pay for it.
“It’s expensive to be a Canadian,” counseled one better-off acquaintance. “The objective is to escape the taxes here,” said a contractor,
citing what he believes is a total 40 percent tax burden in Ontario. “For those under 65 you pay for your own prescriptions,” he warned.
“I like it,” said a middle-aged short-order cook. “I go to the doctor, I pay nothing. I don’t have a worry about bills.” A sales clerk said of the heavy income and sales taxes, “they’re already here. It’s a good system. I’m proud of my country.”
A senior services vendor speaks of the 18 months of successful cancer treatment his sister received in a Canadian city, with surgery, radiation, drugs and rehabilitation all for free.
There are problems with the Canadian system: Waits for major surgery, interruptions of supplies and the flight of many specialists to the United States where they can make more money. But news is made when expectations aren’t realized, not when they are.
By every measurement, Canadians are in better health than we are. The best index is life expectancy. Out of 225 nations, Canada ranks sixth in longevity, at 81.23 years. The United States is 50th, at 78.11, just ahead of Albania.
This is from current data prepared
by the Central Intelligence Agency. Did you know “The Company” tracked world health trends?
The disparity is nothing new. The last time the World Health Organization rated overall health care, in 2000, the United States ranked 37th and Canada 30th.
A study published in 2003 by the Commonwealth Fund about the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand gave us low grades for quality, safety, preventive medicine, emergency room care and efficient use of money. A 2008 UNICEF study ranked the United States second from last among developed countries in children’s health.
Canada spends about 10 percent of its gross domestic product on health care. America spends almost 20 percent of its GDP on health care. The salaries paid to the top executives — ranging from the high six figures to seven and eight figures — in the 600 health care plans marketed in the United States is part of the calculation. So are huge advertising budgets mounted for patented prescription drugs, to say nothing of the millions in political and lobbying outlays in Washington and the 50 state capitals.
FamiliesUSA, a nonpartisan group, says soaring premiums and layoffs have cost nearly 7 million Americans out of the coverage blanket since the start of 2008.
Powerful special interests — the ones serving up the malarkey that we have the best health care system in the world — are saying we can’t afford President Obama’s reforms. We can’t afford not to adopt them.
If our system does have a core of greatness, then its best chance of becoming the world’s best for all Americans and the most cost-efficient lies in the central proposal backed by Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y. And that is the public option, a government- supervised program that will force the private sector to embrace the level of service and efficiencies found in the best of the industrialized world.
dturner@buffnews.com
U. S. health care pales against others
Douglas Turner | Updated: July 13, 2009, 3:42 PM
RIDGEWAY, Ont. — By most accounts, the Canadian Customs inspectors at the Peace Bridge seem a little firmer, less welcoming, even snootier with Yanks than in former years.
Maybe they haven’t fully grasped that Dick Cheney has slipped into an insecure, disclosed location. More likely it’s that they realize Canada has a more effective, more efficient, and less expensive health care system than ours.
By my highly unscientific random survey in this delightful Brigadoon of a village, Canadians either very much like their single-payer system, or don’t strongly oppose it, except for the taxes required to pay for it.
“It’s expensive to be a Canadian,” counseled one better-off acquaintance. “The objective is to escape the taxes here,” said a contractor,
citing what he believes is a total 40 percent tax burden in Ontario. “For those under 65 you pay for your own prescriptions,” he warned.
“I like it,” said a middle-aged short-order cook. “I go to the doctor, I pay nothing. I don’t have a worry about bills.” A sales clerk said of the heavy income and sales taxes, “they’re already here. It’s a good system. I’m proud of my country.”
A senior services vendor speaks of the 18 months of successful cancer treatment his sister received in a Canadian city, with surgery, radiation, drugs and rehabilitation all for free.
There are problems with the Canadian system: Waits for major surgery, interruptions of supplies and the flight of many specialists to the United States where they can make more money. But news is made when expectations aren’t realized, not when they are.
By every measurement, Canadians are in better health than we are. The best index is life expectancy. Out of 225 nations, Canada ranks sixth in longevity, at 81.23 years. The United States is 50th, at 78.11, just ahead of Albania.
This is from current data prepared
by the Central Intelligence Agency. Did you know “The Company” tracked world health trends?
The disparity is nothing new. The last time the World Health Organization rated overall health care, in 2000, the United States ranked 37th and Canada 30th.
A study published in 2003 by the Commonwealth Fund about the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand gave us low grades for quality, safety, preventive medicine, emergency room care and efficient use of money. A 2008 UNICEF study ranked the United States second from last among developed countries in children’s health.
Canada spends about 10 percent of its gross domestic product on health care. America spends almost 20 percent of its GDP on health care. The salaries paid to the top executives — ranging from the high six figures to seven and eight figures — in the 600 health care plans marketed in the United States is part of the calculation. So are huge advertising budgets mounted for patented prescription drugs, to say nothing of the millions in political and lobbying outlays in Washington and the 50 state capitals.
FamiliesUSA, a nonpartisan group, says soaring premiums and layoffs have cost nearly 7 million Americans out of the coverage blanket since the start of 2008.
Powerful special interests — the ones serving up the malarkey that we have the best health care system in the world — are saying we can’t afford President Obama’s reforms. We can’t afford not to adopt them.
If our system does have a core of greatness, then its best chance of becoming the world’s best for all Americans and the most cost-efficient lies in the central proposal backed by Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y. And that is the public option, a government- supervised program that will force the private sector to embrace the level of service and efficiencies found in the best of the industrialized world.
dturner@buffnews.com
