Bush Claims ‘We Have Fabulous Health Care’ Compared To ‘Other Systems Around The World’

[babylonsister]

I want what he's smokin'...

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/17/bush-compare-health-care/

Bush Claims ‘We Have Fabulous Health Care’ Compared To ‘Other Systems Around The World’

During a Q & A following his speech on the economy in Fredericksburg, VA today, President Bush declared that “we have fabulous health care in America“:

I’m going to tell you something — we have fabulous health care in America, just so you know. I think it’s very important — before people start griping about the health care system here — and of course there’s always grounds for complaint — just to compare it with other systems around the world.

Bush may not be aware, but U.S. health care has already been systematically compared to other systems around the world. In many cases, the results are not good for Americans.

In 2002, the U.S. spent more on health care per person than other industrial countries like Britain, Canada, France, and Germany. But unlike those countries, which have universal health care systems, there are roughly 47 million Americans who lack health coverage.

In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) did a comparative assessment of the health systems of 191 countries. The WHO found that in terms of the five measured performance indicators, the U.S. ranked 37th:

The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health services, ranks 18th . Several small countries — San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.

In his recent documentary, SiCKO, Michael Moore illustrated clearly how U.S. health care ranked far behind much of the industrial world. Watch a clip at the link~

As Paul Krugman has noted, American health care “at its best is the best in the world,” but for millions of Americans “it’s all too easy to fall through the cracks in our system.”

[NMMNG]

1. Compared to some third-world nations we do. In that respect he's telling the truth.

:shrug:

[babylonsister]

3. There are also third-world countries Americans flock to for their

healthcare because the price is so cheap. India and Thailand come to mind, though the big cities aren't considered third world there, I guess.

[NMMNG]

10. That says a lot about the state of our health care system,

when people can get quality care at affordable prices in places we consider "third-world".

[rucky]

2. "...if you're rich."

It's amazing how those three words can make a lie true.

kinda like adding "in bed" at the end of the fortune cookie.

[Captain Angry]

4. Depends on your definition of the word "we."

HE has awesome care. The Vice President has access to awesome care.

His family has access to fabulous health care.

Etc.

[baldguy]

5. "We" doesn't mean you

Or me, or any of the other 95% on the bottom.

It was a good thing my mom died when she did. After 4 years of cancer, intensinve care & nursing homes, the insurance ran out & we wouldn't have been able to afford to keep in those facilities.

[Captain Angry]

6. The people he grew up with are all set for life.

The people he "works" with are all set for life.

He has no concept of what real people deal with. And nobody in the media will call him on it nationally.

[Karenina]

11. THIS is what real people deal with.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7254272&mesg_id=7254272

[Union Thug]

15. You are so right, on SOOO many levels...

The wealthy are incapable of understanding the plight of working people. Most of them don't care, so long as they've got theirs.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. I'm going to tell you something george, you're an arrogant, condescending a$$hole!

Oh, and a LIAR as well!

[Hekate]

8. Well, it works for him, doesn't it? (sarcasm) Like any Third World nation, you can get whatever...

...you can pay for here. If you have infinite resources, it doesn't matter if you live in Nairobi or Bangkok or Mexico City or New York City. You -- or in this case George Bush and his ilk -- can get the best in the world.

Otherwise you are welcome to bankrupt your family or die quietly in some alley.

Which is why I keep saying that the US now has a Third World health care delivery system. You get what you pay for. Period.

George Bush (and his ilk) should be ashamed, but they don't know the meaning of the word.

Hekate

[NMMNG]

12. If you were born rich and have never known anything else,

it's impossible to imagine what it's like to be working-class or poor. People like GWB have an inherent inability to see things from any perspective but their own.

[Djinn]

19. you don't need to be all that poor

most Americans I know have had at some point in their lives a time without health insurance, many had an accident or illness in that time that cost them a fortune and kept them in debt for years, sometimes decades. It's inconceivable in any other developed country.

[SOS]

9. "just to compare it with other systems around the world."

Done.

Have experienced both the Austrian and American systems.

Austria was much better.

Next?

[Virginia Dare]

13. He and Cheney get fabulous health care...

that's all he needs to know.

[Union Thug]

14. Compared to Darfur, we have great healthcare. So THERE! n/t

[VP505]

17. Or compared

to Bangladesh our system is great.

[flashl]

16. DOJ Tanner was right, Blacks are just dying.

Harvard Public Health Review

In his latest bid to unearth the dark, tangled roots of disparities in health between blacks and whites, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) newcomer David R. Williams has gone to South Africa.
Insidious racism

Williams looks at social policies and historical patterns of discrimination through a sociologist's lens. By sifting and sorting data in fresh ways, he has cast new light on the causes of blacks' poorer health and rates of survival, observe his new colleagues at HSPH.

...

The roots of health disparities run so deep that they're invisible to most of society, he has found. "A lot of what I struggle with is understanding the larger social, political, and economic context in which health is embedded and the broader forces, many of them hidden, that shape mobility and access to health care," Williams says. "I have argued, for example, that residential segregation, resulting from historical racist policies, is a fundamental cause of excess levels of ill health in the African-American population."

Segregation by neighborhood is so high at every income bracket in the United States that, in many cities, it comes close to levels once legally mandated by apartheid in South Africa, Williams says.

Truth in numbers

Blacks die at twice the rate of whites in the age groups 1–4 and 25–54--a grim fact often missed in comparisons of overall mortality rates, which yield a 30 percent mortality disadvantage for blacks.

According to Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, director of the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and a senior scientist in MGH's Institute for Health Policy, Williams "understands the issue of disparities in its entire breadth and depth--discrimination and socioeconomic status, community and societal factors. Few people have that expertise."

Betancourt and Williams served together on the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine committee that issued the landmark 2003 report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. The authors found that, even when they had overcome barriers to getting health care, African-Americans and other minority populations were still less likely to receive certain high-tech, expensive, yet common procedures such as coronary bypass operations, kidney dialysis, and kidney transplants. They were more likely, however, to undergo certain other procedures, including lower-limb amputations for diabetes.

If death rates for blacks and whites were equal, the authors wrote, about 100,000 fewer black Americans would die every year. In fact, blacks are still dying at rates whites did 30 years ago. "And this is not an act of God," Williams points out dryly.

Read Full Text

[Jacobin]

18. We're 37th!! We're 37th!! We're 37th!!

Shout it out, Bush, you fucking moron.

[TommyO]

20. We do have fabulous health care, it's just unavailable to everybody

If you have good insurance or are wealthy, you'll generally be fine, that doesn't help the 45+ million people that have no access to that fabulous healthcare

[JTFrog]

21. "We" Meaning the Dynasty apparently. n/t

[City Lights]

22. Who is "we," George?

I'm sure you and The Dick have top notch health care. The rest of us 'Murikans, not so much.

[Vinca]

23. Let's just say "some" of us have fabulous healthcare.

1 in 6 has "no" healthcare and the majority of the remainder are one denied insurance claim away from catastrophe. If I thought this guy could read I'd send him a letter describing my outrage.

[HughBeaumont]

24. And in the REAL world, this is what happens:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1747496

George W Bewsh. Because being rich and powerful absolves you from giving a shit.

[Toots]

25. The USA has a fabulous LIAR as leader...

Zero Credibility on any subject mentioned. He is a LIAR....

[Orsino]

26. That must have been the royal "we." n/t