BBC: "US healthcare 'to blame' for poor life expectancy rates"

[jannyk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11502938

"The US healthcare system is to blame for declines in the country's life expectancy ranking, a study suggests. The Columbia University report rejects claims that factors such as obesity have shortened life-spans for Americans relative to other wealthy nations.

The study blames reliance on costly and fragmented specialised care, and calls for systemic reform. The study notes that in 1950, the US ranked fifth among leading industrialised nations for female life expectancy at birth, but only 46th in 2008.

It finds that US healthcare spending increased at nearly twice the rate of that in other wealthy nations between 1970 and 2002, with the increased spending corresponding with worsening survival rates relative to the other countries studied. "In most cases, the relative US performance deteriorated from decade to decade," wrote authors Peter Muennig and Sherry Glied of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

They note the countries to which the US is compared - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK - all provide universal healthcare coverage."

Link to Columbia Study:
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.2010.0073v1#B2

'nuff said. Over and out....

[Turbineguy]

1. Under our system

it's important that we keep people like Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh alive.

Improving the lives of ordinary people is a cost. Tax cuts for the rich is an investment.

[mdmc]

2. ..

[old mark]

3. Rec. I had undiagnosed diabetes and circulatory disease for years - maybe decades -

because I had no insurance and could not afford doctors. I had no symptoms till later in life, and when I finally had a regular MD, he diagnosed my arm and neck pains as carpal tunnel syndrome, and kept doing so till I had 2 heart attacks and had to have 5 way bypass surgery.

We have NO system of health care - we have patchwork coverage for some people and nothing for manuy others. If you are too sick to work regularly or to manitain a "good" job, you will have no healtn insurance...and remain too sick to work. It is a terrible cycle, one that I was in for decades in my early life, and one that this country MUST eliminate.

Why do American citizens stand for this shabby treatment when other governments actually take care of their people? I have never understood that.

mark

[demodonkey]

5. Better you should be sick for years or even die than live under.... (gasp).... SOCIALISM!

This is America! Freedom! FREEDOM!!!

:sarcasm: (of course)

[old mark]

6. Better for some, maybe, but I 'd really rather have medicare for all.

Not much of a system with millions left out with no care and politicians saying that that is what we need...they are killing us for money and we don't even get mad at them? What happened to our country?

mark

[RKP5637]

8. "Why do American citizens stand for this shabby treatment" - because America

is full of ignorant naive people that swallow hook line and sinker BS thrown at them and often carefully crafted to keep them in line. And many still say hey, this is the best place in the world to live.

We also have this inane "not invented here syndrome," that only America can do anything right, and if we didn't do it, it's not as good. We have such a dumbed down populace and I fear growing and growing. Plus many gripe about congress, yet vote them in...

I could go on and on as you know, but I'll stop here. Time to get some morning coffee!:)

I get so so so frustrated with the level of nonsense and BS in this country.

[old mark]

13. It is incredibly frustrating. And this is the republican/RW dream - an ignorant

gullible people who believe they have no rights, yet are somehow more "free" than the rest of the world.
Slaves for the workplace who work cheap and die young.

mark

[malaise]

4. Can't be

I keep hearing that America is the greatest country on the planet - this could not happen there :sarcasm:

[xchrom]

7. Quelle shock & awe. Nt

[stray cat]

9. No contribution from weight, lack of exercise or diabetes complications

Yeah -no lifestyle changes required by anyone

[Bluenorthwest]

12. That is not at all what the article said nor suggested.

It is as if you are unable to comprehend simple written material. To state what you stated is very close to telling a lie about the OP. You make a false statement as if it was theirs. Very ugly stuff.
Since you are struggling, let me point out that fitness issues are PART of health care. The US has too much diabetes due to lack of preventative health care, nutritional guidance and other elements of a civilized health care system.
It is one thing to be snarky, but vapidity takes the sharp off the snark blade.

[Cali_Democrat]

14. ...

[Hannah Bell]

16. right, & everyone in europe, japan, etc. is normal weight, exercises constantly, & doesn't smoke.

bwah-ha.

the japanese smoke like chimneys, the french as well, the germans are blimps, they all live longer & healthier than americans.

the us has the highest poverty rate in the developed world, & the most expensive healthcare system.

[Hannah Bell]

18. diabetes rate in us & canada = the same. life-span, complications rate, etc. = different.

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/d/diabetes/stats-country.htm


the differences = universal health care, lower poverty rate, etc.

[leftstreet]

19. Oh please

Japanese people smoke like crazy. And have you ever eaten typical fare in Germany? OMG Carb/fat overload

It's becoming clear that the CONTRIBUTION of STRESS living under American rich-eat-poor capitalism is COMPROMISING American health and life expectancy.

[Scuba]

10. If 32 years as a hospital executive taught me anything....

...it's that health insurance executives are mass murderers.

[shockra]

11. This is relevant. From John Robbins yesterday...

How Bad is McDonald's Food?

"The annual health insurance premiums paid by the average American family now exceed the gross yearly income of a full-time minimum wage worker. Every 30 seconds, someone in the U.S. files for bankruptcy due to the costs of treating a health problem. Starbucks spends more on the health insurance of its workers than it does on coffee.

Medical care costs in the U.S. have not always been this excessive. This year, we will spend more than $2.5 trillion on medical care. But in 1950, five years before Ray Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald's restaurant, Americans only spent $8.4 billion ($70 billion in today's dollars). Even after adjusting for inflation, we now spend as much on health care every 10 days as we did in the entire year of 1950."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/how-bad-is-mcdonalds-food_b_754814.html

[HuckleB]

15. Kick.

[TexasObserver]

17. recommend

[leftstreet]

20. K&R

[Canuckistanian]

21. Well, it is 'to blame'

I think there's a fairly clear correlation with the greed of health insurance companies and the early deaths of Americans.

I don't think this is news.

[depakid]

22. The chart showing the change over time really is impressive

[Edweird]

23. This is what makes the recent 'reform' such a travesty.