Quote:
Originally Posted by aceventura3
Are you suggesting that prenatal care is not related to infant mortality? Are you asking me to prove that to you? Are you asking me to prove to you that people at the highest risk of not getting prenatal care are poor teens? Is that what we need to spend time on?
|
No, Im suggesting that teenagers not knowing about prenatal care is not enough to justify the difference, that you have no evidence that infant mortality is higher among teenagers, and that even if it is, that this is caused by not knowing about prenatal care, as opposed to not having access to it (which would be directly related to the quality of US healthcare)
Quote:
|
When I read the WHO report I saw mortality for children under 5 as 8 per 10,000 (.08%) compared to Canada as 6 per 10,000 (.06%). Perhaps some consider that alone to be statistically significant enough to draw conclusions, I don't.
|
Statistical significance only comes into account when you are talking about samples. When you have population data, you already know that they are statistically significantly different. And to put things in another way, 8 is 33% higher than 6.
Quote:
|
I would rather spend money today to keep my cholesterol low, blood pressure low, etc., than to not spend the money and spend extra days at the end of my life in a hospital bed. It is clear on this issue, that you make your choices, I make mine - government should not dictate to you nor me.
|
You can't really be insisting on this point. First of all, the differences in healthcare do no come solely at the end of one's life. Second of all, the difference include differences in preventive care, where the US does even worse. Third of all, you've yet to mention costs.
"I want to die young, so I want a healthcare system that is less efficient and more costly" has to be the more insane, absurd defense of the American healthcare system I have ever heard.
Quote:
|
I did not see WHO make the value judgment regarding the quality of health care that you seem to make.
|
where did any value judgements come into place?
Quote:
|
and my point is we need to understand the numbers. when comparing two countries on this issue, you have to understand for example what is the impact of AIDS on the numbers, and how does cultural aspects in one country compare to another in this regard outside of health care to determine how the numbers impact health care delivery questions.
|
The point is that YOU don't understand the numbers, and guess randomly at improbably things that could explain differences in care, outcomes, and cost
Quote:
|
Read the report again. They did make adjustment to life expectancy, for something they call "full health" - which you can not explain.
|
You can't really be that dense. You really can't. "Healthy life expectancy" is not the same as "life expectancy." Their numbers are exactly the same you will find being used by the CDC. The adjustments they made to "healthy life expectancy" is the same they did for most nations.
Quote:
|
Lets be clear. I am asking for an understanding of their numbers. The numbers are in their report, not mine. Isn't fair to ask? If we are going to make policy decisions based on the report and comparisons to other nations, don't we want to understand the numbers. How do we know their source is not biased? How do they explain that in some categories of statistics some nations show no data?
|
Their source is the CDC and the US Census Bureau. Not all nations collect data on everything, hence why there is some missing data.
Quote:
|
I was challenged regarding homicides. I was told homicides would make no difference when comparing the US and Canada. I simply went through an exercise to prove, at least to me, that it does make a difference. I am comfortable with the conclusion I have come to until someone proves otherwise, you have not.
|
No one said homicide doesn't make a difference. What was said was that homicides don't explain the difference in mortality rates between the US and Canada.