USA=37th --- In The World For Health Care -"Not Even Close To Having The Best"

[kpete]

DERRICK Z. JACKSON
What the data should do is end any boasting about the greatness of our health care system.

Living longer? Not in US
By Derrick Z. Jackson
Globe Columnist / June 28, 2011

ONE FALSEHOOD must end in the raging debates on Medicare, Medicaid, and health reform. In their denunciation of reform, Republicans from House Speaker John Boehner to Tea Party presidential candidate Michele Bachmann boast we already have the world’s best health system. Last week Representative Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee spiced up the rhetoric by saying reform is “destroying the greatest health care system the world’s ever known.’’

No one doubts we have some of the most advanced medical technologies, research, and facilities. But if you measure systems by life expectancy, the United States, at 37th in the world for both men and women, is not even close to having the best. As Republicans continue to demonize what little reform we have agreed to, life expectancy for American women is dropping as never before in some sections of the nation.

Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation this month published a county-by-county analysis of life expectancy. From 1987 to 1997, there were 227 counties where female life expectancy dropped. From 1997 to 2007, the number of counties where women’s life expectancy dropped exploded to 737.

Comparisons with the rest of the developed world are more appalling. Of the nation’s 3,147 counties, nearly two-thirds — 2,054 — fell further behind life expectancies for women in the 10 longest-living countries. This is despite the United States having the world’s highest per-capita health spending.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/28/living_longer_not_in_us/

[woo me with science]

1. Any measure of the quality of a health care system

must take into account access to that system without a consequence of financial devastation.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. WE ARE USA WE ARE NUMBER WON!*

*in costs per capita anyway

[aikoaiko]

3. When people say the US has the best healthcare, the hidden clause is "for those who can afford it".

FWIW.

[damntexdem]

4. But at least by far the most expensive.

Of course, being so far the most-expensive and achieving only 37th means that our (non)system's cost effectiveness is truly dismal, likely not even in the top 100.

[area51]

5. +1

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 preventable deaths per year. This is not only a moral issue, but a national security issue that we're so vulnerable given that our health care delivery system is so fragmented and dysfunctional.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, bankrupts and kills people.

Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

"Employer-based health insurance has always been a bad idea. Your life should not depend on who you work for." -- T. McKeon

"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America

"Despite the present hyperbole by its supporters, this latest effort will end up as just another failed reform effort littering the landscape of the last century." --John Geyman, M.D., Hijacked! The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[roomfullofmirrors]

7. is it due to the quality of our healthcare system or the quality of our lifestyle choices though?

we eat too much, we drink too much, and we smoke too much. we also have a rapidly growing population of citizens that are highly prone to developing diabetes related health complications that are, to a large extent, secondary to poor lifestyle choices i.e. poor diets, alcohol, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, etc. Humans didn't evolve to exist this way.