Health Care, Media and the Case for Socialized Medicine

[inna]

This article is definitely worth reading in its entirety, but here are some points/stats I wanted to highlight...

http://counterpunch.org/dimaggio07222009.html

- U.S. health care costs are actually the highest in the First World, with its quality of care ranked among the worst providers. In the 2000 World Health Organization (WHO) quality of care rankings, the U.S. ranked 37th behind virtually all of the First World. The U.S. competed alongside non-First World countries such as Cuba, Slovenia, Brunei, Bahrain and Croatia in terms of quality of care. With the worst quality, the U.S. is also charges the highest amounts for care. As of 2006, the U.S. spent between 52-55 percent more than Switzerland, Norway, and Luxembourg, the second, third, and fourth most expensive countries in per capita health care expenditures. The U.S. spent per capita between 158-160 percent more than the lowest cost health care countries: including Italy, Japan, and Finland. All of these countries, I should note, provided better quality coverage than the U.S. according to the WHO.

- As economist Paul Krugman explains, by 2004, the U.S. spent 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care (more than a 100 percent increase since 1970), as compared to Canada, which spent 9.9 percent of GDP, Germany at 10.6 percent, and the U.K. at 8.1 percent. Those systems demonized for “inefficient” socialized medicine, then, provide far superior and cheaper health care than the U.S. system.

- Aside from providing the most expensive and worst care, costs in the U.S. have increased since the studies above were conducted. Health insurance premiums in the U.S. increased by 140 percent from 1999 to 2008 according to a 2009 Kaiser Family Foundation study. Company health care costs are projected to rise another 9 percent by 2010, with 42 percent of employers expecting to increase employee contributions to health care plans, and 41 percent expecting an increase in employee co-payments and deductibles.

- The Kaiser study mentioned above also found a tremendous amount of inequality in access to health care along class lines. As of 2006, a staggering 96.8 percent of all health care spending was concentrated amongst the wealthiest 50 percent of Americans, leaving just 3.2 percent for the poorest 50 percent. The richest 10 percent of Americans accounted for 63.3 percent of all spending, meaning that this subset of the population (equaling only about 30 million out of 300 million Americans) enjoyed nearly two-thirds of all health care spending.

- Under the for-profit system, upwards of 50 million Americans are currently uninsured. Another 25 million are estimated to be underinsured (an increase in 16 percent from 2003 to 2008), bringing the total to 75 million people uninsured (or 25 percent of the public) in the richest country in the world. It would seem that, were a private health care system really that efficient, it would be able to better provide for such a large segment of the population.

much more at http://counterpunch.org/dimaggio07222009.html

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K&R

[inna]

2. here's more critical and stark stats....

- High costs impose a tremendous strain on the American economy, as health care corporations play a parasitic role by draining resources from other industries that are unable to pay for radical increases in cost of medical services. This is most evident at the macro-level, as the average growth rate in annual health care expenditures eclipsed economic growth rate (measured in GDP) by 2.25% each year from the 1970s through the post-2000 period (ending in 2007). We can see the corrosive effects on many sectors of the economy, particular when looking at small companies (employing half of American workers) and the automotive industry (directly and indirectly employing nearly 3 million workers). Approximately 10 percent of small business owners are considering dropping their health coverage of employees altogether in the next year due to increased costs. In the case of the auto industry, skyrocketing health care costs ensure that U.S. workers suffer from a comparative disadvantage when competing with other countries. In 2005, for example, General Motors reported that a single car produced in the U.S. cost about $1,500 in health benefits, whereas the same car produced in Canada cost $500 - a $1,000 difference. In 2006, the Conference Board of Canada estimated that U.S. health care and pension expenses cost $1,400 to $1,800 more for each vehicle produced in the U.S. when compared to Canada.

but here's the part that shocked me most, and something i didn't know about:

- The Kaiser study mentioned above also found a tremendous amount of inequality in access to health care along class lines. As of 2006, a staggering 96.8 percent of all health care spending was concentrated amongst the wealthiest 50 percent of Americans, leaving just 3.2 percent for the poorest 50 percent. The richest 10 percent of Americans accounted for 63.3 percent of all spending, meaning that this subset of the population (equaling only about 30 million out of 300 million Americans) enjoyed nearly two-thirds of all health care spending.

:wow:

[elehhhhna]

3. croatian care at swiss prices. Sheesh.

[crickets]

4. Thanks for the link & the stats. K&R -nt

[mdmc]

5. kick