I found this bar chart from The Economist (HT: Kruse Kronicle) to cause me to ponder the so-called differences of heath care in different countries. It seems that the life expectancies in these countries are not all that different.. especially for men.
There is something wrong with your charts, Bob. We in the US have the best healthcare. I know that because we pay the most. Please currect your graphs to reflect that. Thanks.
ReplyDelete...pretty much what Ed G. said. The point is that we're spending so much more on health care and achieving similar, even mildly inferior results.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it may not be all due to the quality of care but our work-addicted, car-worshiping lifestyles.
That doesn't necessarily mean anything. Many times there are differences in how the calculations are made for these types of figures (for example, US infant mortality rates include all infant deaths while in Japan, infants that die within two days of birth are excluded from the calculation). Furthermore, Americans have the worst eating habits in the world, so it's a miracle we're not in last place. Compare the cancer survival rates for a better indicator of where our healthcare stands compared to the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteThanks All! I tend to agree that we are not getting results for the amount of $$ we are doling out for health insurance.. of course Americans typically dole out more $$ for about anything and everything.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Roger said this on FB: "I learned in nursing school that 230,000 people die of med errors every year. If we had no health care at all, these 230,000 lives would be saved. Let's see - thats 460,000 in two years, over a million lives saved in 5 years - and it won't cost a dime!"
Many on Facebook are agreeing with you about diet and exercise Casey. Do you have a URL about cancer survival rates? I do think that would be a good stat.
Sorry, Bob, no URL. I was just thinking that statistics like that might be harder to fudge and would not be affected by the American lifestyle of glutony and laziness.
ReplyDeleteBob, according to the Concord Study (largest international cancer survival rate study of 31 countries on 5 continents) North America, Japan and France had the highest cancer survival rates and Algeria, Brazil, and eastern Europe had the lowest.
ReplyDeleteThanks Missy! I guess Canada and the US are combined in that study. It would be interesting to see if there is a difference between the two countries because of the different kinds of healthcare programs in the two.
ReplyDeleteThey are reported separately, but I didn't analyze the data, just the results summary. I think those four (US/Canada/Japan/France) were basically neck-in-neck. There were some variance based on types of cancer.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, those that can afford it have pretty good healthcare here. We don't spend a lot because we have bad healthcare plans, we spend a lot because clinics learn how to maximize the spending of your healthcare dollars. Dental and vision practices are probably the best at this, but many of the clinics and hospitals I've been to are moving that way.
Amazing how many medical "professionals" are adept and willing to scam Medicare and insurance companies. Small wonder that these insurance providers negotiate fees and rates.
ReplyDelete