Why President Obama Can't Use Green Bay & Lacrosse to Project Healthcare Costs

[steven johnson]

Peter Orszag, Obama administration budget chief, said, "If we could make the rest of the nation practice medicine the way that Green Bay does, we would have higher quality and significantly lower costs."

These counties are unusual. They have unusually healthy populations with long life spans. Longevity and health problems are correlated. That is, people who live longer have fewer health problems. So they cost less. They will not tell you how ObamaCare is going to turn out when applied nationwide. It's going to be a lot more expensive.

Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States

Ironically, if you look at healthgrades.com, the Green Bay and Lacrosse hospitals are not even top 100 hospitals in the US. The only top 100 hospital in Wisconsin, Aspirus Wausau Hospital Wausau, WI, was not even mentioned by the President or his budget advisor. There are many better hospitals in Wisconsin than those in Green Bay and Lacrosse. Look it up in healthgrades.com if you don't believe me.

I think we need healthcare reform. But these numbers are a bait and switch set of promises, apples and oranges. You want oranges? I'm betting they will give you oranges' statistics and you'll get apples in the mail.

[FrenchieCat]

1. ObamaCare????

I thought it was called AmeriCare?

Perhaps those population in these counties are "unusually Healthy" with long life spans because they have a good health care system. Did anyone make that link, or is that too much to ask? :crazy:

[steven johnson]

2. Sicker areas have more smoking, obesity, & other risk factors

In fact, the US would have the same life expectancy as other developed countries if we had their homicide and car accident rates. And our infant mortality would be similar with fewer teenage pregnancies.

Risk factors aren't controlled by the healthcare system. Like sin -- it's a matter if free will. You sin -- you pay the price.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Tell that to the Black Folks that I have read statistics on.......

who suffer high blood pressure, diabetis, sickle cell, and a host of other ailments that directly relates to poverty and lack of preventive care....something that is part of the healthcare system.

We are not the ones to judge on sin, last I checked.....
we are supposed to be moral and caring like Jesus would be. Remember?

[steven johnson]

4. Homicide, HIV, and unintentional injuries are significant factors

With risk factor control, african-american life expectancy has been improving.



The gap between blacks and whites remains large--at 6.3 years for males and 4.5 years for females, with cardiovascular disease accounting for about 30% of the difference in men and 40% in women."
"Hypertension is a much greater problem in blacks than in whites, and obesity is a particular problem in black women...
The key results from the study showed that among females, the black-white life-expectancy gap increased by 0.5 years in the period 1983-1993, primarily due to increased mortality from HIV. The gap among males increased by two years in the same period, principally because of increased death rates from HIV, homicide, and heart disease.
Between 1993 and 2003, the female gap decreased by one year (from 5.5 to 4.5 years), driven by relative mortality improvement among blacks in heart disease, homicide, and unintentional injuries. The decline in the life-expectancy gap during this period was larger among males, declining by 25% (from 8.44 to 6.33 years), nearly all of which was due to fewer deaths among young to middle-aged black men from homicide, HIV, and unintentional injuries. But lack of improvement in heart disease in older black men kept the gap from narrowing further.



Gap in Life Expectancy Between US Blacks and Whites Is Narrowing

[FrenchieCat]

5. 4.5 to 6.3 years is a whole lot of time!