Monthly Archives: July 2008

This article from Reuters puts out system in perspective:

“Americans are the least satisfied with their health care system, while the Dutch system is rated the best, according to new research.

Polls about health care in 10 developed countries by Harris Interactive revealed a range of opinions about what works and what doesn’t.

In the United States a third of Americans believe their system needs to be completely overhauled, while a further 50 percent feel that fundamental changes need to be made.

“Given that all countries other than the U.S. have universal health care systems in place, this may invite questions on why the U.S. remains the only wealthy, industrialized country without such a system,” Harris president George Terhanian told Reuters.”

“The U.S. model, widely criticized on its combination of private insurance and publicly-funded programs, spends more on health care than any other nation worldwide but ranks low on overall quality of care, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).”

The health plans offered by Obama and McCain do not answer the questions raised by this polling.  Neither mandate universal health coverage nor attack the lack of value in health care in the U.S.  Our costs are double those elsewhere and our outcomes worse.  Is this the American way?

McCain’s so called plan actually does away with the employer mandate so fewer people will likely be insured.  His tax rebate scheme will not cover insurance costs and further his plan allow insurers to deny insurance to the sick and other high risk groups.  He would, hard as it is to believe, make things worse than they are.

Obama’s plan is better but still allows the waste and duplication of multiple insurers administrative costs–which amount to about 30% of health care spending.  Medicare spend under 10% on administration.

Nice feature on NPR regarding the United Kingdom’s approach to expensive medications. There are trade-offs–toxicity, expenses, limited efficacy.

You don’t find such openness in the U.S. where unrealistic expectations, incomplete information, irrational use of funds and conflicts of interest drive utilization.