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Banned
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I guess that I wasn't quite done. I am reacting to <b>the MESSAGE</b> from aceventura3, the IBD, and Ustwo, et al.
They want to convince us that government cannot provide anything to the public that the "private sector' cannot do cheaper and better. I just read that medicare's administrative overhead costs are six percent, and private medical insurance administration, and I assume, profit, takes a 25 to 30 percent bite out of insurance premium charges on private insurance plans.
For the majority of Americans, (The U.S. is one of only two major industrialized nations that does not provide government funded healthcare.) the "system" is a private payer system. Looking at the info provided below, and in my last post, I have to wonder: <h4>U.S. population is ten greater than that of Canada. Why is there no cost or performance benefit result from an expected economy of scale, here in the U.S., given the sheer size and purchasing influence, as well as more money to purchase better technology and to make better use of it to manage costs, and to provide lowered expense per patient due to better treatment outcome and theoretically.... less misdiagnoses and shorter, less expensive treatment regimens, due to earlier and more accurate diagnosis and treatment, aggravated in Canada by it's "long lines" of those waiting to be examined and then waiting extended periods to be treated by specialists? </h4>
How will Americans pay for these cost increase projections ?
Quote:
http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/US..._in_2015.shtml
US health care will cost $4 trillion in 2015
By cms.hhs.gov
Feb 22, 2006, 13:43
......Forecast Summary
Health care spending in the United States is projected to grow 7.4 percent and surpass $2 trillion in 2005, down from the 7.9 percent growth experienced in 2004. This rate is 0.5 percentage points less than the 7.9 percent growth observed in 2004 and represents the third consecutive year of decelerating growth, following six years of acceleration from 1996 through 2002.
As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), health care spending is expected to continue to grow, reaching 16.2 percent in 2005, up from 16.0 percent in 2004. By 2015, health care spending in the United States is projected to reach $4.0 trillion and 20.0 percent of GDP.
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Quote:
http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsA...2-28-voa59.cfm
US Health Care: World's Most Expensive
The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world and the health care costs continue to rise. Government figures show that in 2004 health care spending reached 1.9 trillion dollars, equaling 16 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.......
..."Most Americans get their health insurance from their employer. Not all of them, however. Large companies provide basic health care services. But what you see is more and more U.S. employees, the workers, spend more money out of their pocket to help cover their health care cost. So out-of-pocket expenses for the average American are rising tremendously. And then, don't forget, you've got 45 million Americans without any health insurance. They have fallen through the safety net, so to speak."
The United States spends more money per person on health care than any other country in the world, about $5,300 annually. In comparison, Switzerland spends about 35-hundred dollars per person per year, Japan about $2,000 and Turkey as little as $446 per person each year.
America's Expensive Health Care System
Colleen Grogan, Professor of Health Policy and Politics at the University of Chicago, says the primary reason for the high cost of American health care is that most medical services, materials, technologies and drugs are more expensive than in other industrialized countries.
"For example, Canada," says Professor Grogan. "You would think we would be perhaps closest to the prices in Canada. We are three times higher. The fees that are paid, the actual prices for procedures and what we pay to providers, are three times as high as in Canada."............
.......The United States provides similar systems, Medicare and Medicaid, but only for its elderly and low-income people. Working Americans are usually covered by employer-sponsored private insurances. The idea has been that privatizing insurance would spur market competition and decrease the prices, but analysts say the opposite has happened.........
.........Proponents of the U.S. health care system have long argued that Americans may be paying the most, but that they also have access to the best and fastest health services in the world.
But some analysts call this is a myth. They say data for 30 countries of the
MRI
Patient receiving an MRI scan
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that the U.S. has fewer hospital beds and physicians per person than, for example, France, Australia, Italy and Austria. The University of Chicago's Colleen Grogan says many countries also outrank the U.S. in access to advanced medical technology. She says, "Here we are above the median for MRI [i.e., magnetic resonance imaging] units per million for example. So we have 8.2 MRI units per million population. The median is 5.5. But we are not the highest."
While some analysts argue that more beds and scanning units do not necessarily mean better health care, most agree that Americans are not getting the best value for the money............
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Quote:
http://www.citypages.com/databank/26...ticle12985.asp
America by the numbers
No. 1?
by Michael Ventura
February 23, 2005
# Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.
# The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
# "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
# Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
# "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
# Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
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