U.S. Lags Behind Other Nations in Health Care

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter Thu Nov 3, 5:01 PM ET
Um, just excerpting a little here. I get so sick of repiglikkkans blathering about Canada's failed health care system. Though the Germans, as the lovely Linda Langston pointed out to me 20 plus years ago, do everything better, as usual.

"It's a question of striking a balance between choice as a good thing and lack of continuity, which certainly seems to be causing a problem for some of the patients here," added Philip Davies, deputy secretary for the Australian government's Department of Health and Ageing. "Our physicians, particularly in the ambulatory sector, are focusing back on the traditional curing role and maybe having less time to devote to other issues of explaining and devoting time to managing the patient's journey."

Of course, Australia, home of criminal mastermind Rupert Murdoch, under right wing ruffian John Howard, may not be a good example of anything much. The place is bound to fall apart with such influences.

Americans tended to have to pay more for their care, spending more than $1,000 out-of-pocket in the past year. Half of the adults surveyed said they didn't seek help when sick, didn't fill a prescription or didn't get recommended treatment. By contrast, 13 percent of adults in the U.K. reported foregoing care because of costs, and two-thirds said they had no out-of-pocket costs.

Tsk tsk. Even with 300 million people multiplied by 1000 bucks, the out of pocket cost quoted gives a wrong impression of true costs. (How shocking for something in the media to be so blatanly misleading. You'd think we were talking about WMD or voting rights. Or repiglikkkan integrity.)
The United States spends more per person than any country in the world and gets less. Many doctors will get in your face and tell you this insane cost is about malpractice insurance and lawsuits. That is, of course, simple repiglikkkan swill, proven to be false in states which have "curtailed" lawsuits and still had malpractice insurance rates rise like a mercury rocket. Some doctors will tell you the obscene cost is because everyone is forced to pay for those who are uninsured. Well then, the solution is rather obvious, duh, clearly the way to control costs is to do away the current system and give access to everyone, which will eliminate the billions of dollars in administrative costs. For starters. Universal coverage now.

"The U.S. is an outlier," Schoen said.
In Canada and the United States, patients were significantly less likely to get same-day access to health care.
In the other countries, 45 percent to 58 percent reported being able to get same-day appointments. Waiting times for elective surgery or specialists were shortest in Germany and the United States.
"The lack of waiting time in Germany was notable because they spend a lower percentage of their gross domestic product on health care than we do," Schoen said.

Oh yeah, American health care is the scam of the century, ranking right up there with halliburton, globalization and "conservatism."
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