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Despite GOP Claims, U.S. Health Care Nowhere Near ‘Best’ in the World
iWatch News / News Analysis
Published: Monday 28 November 2011
Common Republican assertion of U.S. health care dominance is ‘way off base’.
A little more than a year ago, on the day after the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives, Speaker-to-be John Boehner said one of the first orders of business after he took charge would be the repeal of health care reform.
"I believe that the health care bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country," Boehner said at a press conference. "That means we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.”
Boehner is not the first nor the only Republican to try to make us believe that the U.S. has the world’s best health care system and that we’re bound to lose that distinction because of Obamacare. I’ve heard GOP candidates for president say the same thing in recent months, charging that we need to get rid of a President who clearly is trying to fix something that doesn’t need fixing, something that isn’t broken in the first place.
Well, those guys need to get out more. Out of the country, in fact. They need to travel to at least one of the many countries that are doing a much better job of delivering high quality care at much lower costs than the good old USA.
If they’re not interested in a fact-finding mission abroad, then perhaps they might take a look at two recent reports before they make any other statements about the quality of American health care.
Last week, the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) released the results of its most recent study of the health care systems in its member countries, including the U.S., plus six others, for a total of 40. And those results are illuminating.
If Boehner and his fellow Republicans had characterized the U.S. system as the most expensive in the world, they would have been right on target. But they would have been way off base by calling it the best.
The OECD report is just the most recent evidence that Americans are not getting nearly as much bang for the health care buck as citizens of most other developed countries — and even some countries in the developing world.
The OECD found that the United States spends two-and-a-half times more on health care per person than the OECD average. The U.S. even spends more than twice as much as France, which many experts contend has one of the best health care systems on the planet.
The average expenditure per person in the U.S. is $7,960, a third more than in Norway, the second highest. The OECD average, by comparison, is just $3,233. (It is $3,873 in France.)
Here are some reasons why: Hospital spending is 60 percent higher than the average of five other relatively expensive countries (Switzerland, Canada, Germany, France and Japan); spending on pharmaceuticals and medical goods is much higher here than any of the other countries; and administrative costs are more than two-and-a-half times the average of the others.
It was not all bad news for us. We’re number one in the five-year breast cancer survival rate and number two (behind Japan) in the five-year colorectal cancer survival rate. We’re also number one in costly knee replacements and number two (again behind Japan) in the number of MRI units per million people.
But we rank 29th in the number of hospital beds per person and 29th in the average length of a stay in the hospital. And we have high rates of avoidable hospital admissions for people with asthma, lung disease, diabetes, hypertension and other common illnesses.
When it comes to access to physicians, we’re also near the bottom of the pack. We rank 26th in the number of physicians, especially primary care or family doctors, per 1,000 people.
In terms of life expectancy, we rank 28th, just behind Chile. The average age of death in the U.S. is 78.2, well below the average of 79.5 years in the other OCED countries.
The OECD study backs up the results of a report released by the Commonwealth Fund in October, which showed that the U.S. is actually losing ground to other countries in assuring that its citizens have equal access to affordable, efficient care.
The Commonwealth Fund “scorecard” found that the U.S. is failing to keep up with gains in health outcomes made by other nations. We now rank last out of 16 countries in the Commonwealth Fund study when it comes to deaths that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical care.
A big reason for the dismal results is the fact that more and more Americans are falling into the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured. As of last year, according to the Commonwealth Fund, 81 million adults in the U.S. — 44 percent of all adults under age 65 — were either uninsured or underinsured at some point during the year, up from 61 million as recently as 2003.
So the next time you hear a politician claim that the U.S. has the best health care system in the world, be aware that he or she is trying to get you to believe something that is demonstrably not true, undoubtedly for no reason other than to advance their political agenda. We deserve better — in both rhetoric and results.
Reprinted by permission from iWatch News
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ABOUT Wendell Potter
Former CIGNA executive-turned-whistleblower Wendell Potter is writing about the health care industry and the ongoing battle for health reform. Potter is the author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.
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31 comments on "Despite GOP Claims, U.S. Health Care Nowhere Near ‘Best’ in the World"
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How neat! Is it really this sipmle? You make it look easy.
December 04, 2011 12:06pm
shoes are heavily advertised. So are new cars. We need shoes and cars to drive someplace, perhaps to work. Wow a shoecare and carcare crisis, lets regulate them out of business.
November 29, 2011 10:04am
According to Wall St, there are big profits to be made in health care.
The profits make it the best in the world, not people care
Silly people!
November 29, 2011 12:07am
I notice the reference to even Cuba having better health care than the US. I've visited Cuba three times and, it seems to me, they are rightly proud of their health care for everyone, and their educational system, which has eliminated illiteracy. The last time I was in Cuba, I had occasion to make a visit to a small town medical clinic for a minor problem. There was no cost, even to a visitor, and the prescription cost $5. Here in Canada, we are proud of our health care system, imperfect and costly though it may be, but we charge visitors a hefty amount if they use our system. We expect them to claim their costs back from their travel insurance.
November 28, 2011 5:34pm
Some of the statistics don't appear to be that interesting: the life expectancy for instance is clustered around 78-79... that needs a whole lot of data. What might be interesting is that while the costs of the last year should be huge? are they? the European costs are still lower? What is going on there?The statistics need to be discussed, analyzed, explained, not just trotted out... how might immigration figure in? Drug use? Alcohol and cigarette consumption?
November 28, 2011 4:55pm
FOR PROFIT HEALTH CARE IS A MORTAL SIN, PERIOD!
November 28, 2011 4:26pm
The for profit insurance system is a criminal shakedown of the American people, those that can afford to remain insured, done with the direct participation and complicity of the congress. How does this comport with our democracy, if we can still refer to it as such? The BEST? (How much commission did Boehner make for spouting such an inanity?). The BEST at what remains to be defined.
Health care must be made a right....... Single payer is the only logical answer. Let's quit thinking about it as a social policy and start regarding it as an industrial policy. Think of how much all those small entrepreneurial job creators would be freed up to hire more if they didn't have to first account for health insurance for it's employees. Cradle to grave as a single payer system would be a huge benefit to all prospective employers, large and small, and ultimately we might end up with a system that actually performs as well as jackasses like boehner keep telling us it is already, in the face of evidence to the contrary. This is just one case where corporate necessity is just going to have to eat it.
THANK YOU!
I am so grateful to see that others feel this way too!
To BAD WE HAD TO LEARN IT THE HARD WAY.
NO ONE SHOULD BE BANKRUPTED BY AN INJURY, SICKNESS!
Or an industry intent ONLY ON PROFITS!
SINGLE PAYER WOULD ELIMINATE, WORK COMP!
Get business to see this, and WC and Insurers, would disappear.
Talk about DEATH PANELS just try toFIGHT AN INSURER ABOUT "YOUR" RIGHTS.
Nationalize insurance companies and pay for National Single Payer plan.
Support Our Troops! Stop the Wars! Iraq, Afghanistan! And Mexico!
Legalize Medical M. and industrial Hemp! TAX IT!
Pay the debt down by TAXING THE 1% ers! JAIL FOR BANKSTERS!
Start with a FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM and Green Energy!
November 28, 2011 4:11pm
Republican's always try to make us believe that the U.S. has the world’s best health care system. Republican's continue to say that the United States of America has the best health care system in the world.
There are in Fact many countries that are doing a much better job of delivering high quality care at much lower costs than the good old USA. When in fact the U.S. is actually losing ground to other countries in assuring that its citizens have equal access to affordable, efficient care.
The key word "AFFORDABLE" explains to me why Republicans say what they do and why the Health care of American Citizens will continue to disintegrate. The Republican Party and the Tea-Party Members have always and will always support that which allows the A"Rich and Powerful" to make Profits and continue to make HUGE Profits off of their Workers or Employees.
We must always remember that the Health Care Insurance Corporations and Companies are "FOR PROFIT" Organizations who have Huge Lobbing Groups that continue to Bribe and Buy the votes of the Republican Party in the Congress of the United States of America and who could care less about the 99% of the Citizens that have to purchase health care Insurance. They only care about the 99% of us Citizens when we make our monthly Insurance Payment.
Health Care needs to be NATIONALIZED and to be a Single Payer Plan that everyone must belong to from Birth to Death. This Governmental Health Care Plan would have the authority to NEGOTIATE with the Hospitals, Doctors, Equipment Suppliers and Pharmaceutical Industry to ensure a Fair and Competitive price for all. In fact I believe that this would enable a Tremendous reduction in the price of Health Care in the United States of America and a significant reduction in the cost of Insurance to the individual purchasing the Insurance Coverage.
November 28, 2011 3:13pm
The French treat good health care as a right that all citizens should have access to. In the American model, health care is just another commodity, and the sale of this commodity generates profit for everyone who is part of the system. Corporations, lots of them in America, companies traded on the stock exchange, exist to manage the inefficiencies, the multiple insurance companies, the decisions on who to exclude for what reasons, etc. Even the inefficiencies are a profit center for someone.
November 28, 2011 3:05pm
crybaby boehner needs to retire---after his presence for 20 yrs we are certainly very much worse off than we were! in fact all politicians should have term limits.
November 28, 2011 4:51pm
As someone with some considerable experience with the French system, I can testify that it is much more efficient, costs much, much less, and the care is every bit as good. I've told some of these stories in my personal webpage blog. www.harvey-mudd.com
November 28, 2011 2:37pm
My 83 year old Mom is in the hospital right now waiting for the swelling in her broken ankle to go down so it can be operated on. The emergency room doctor and the surgeon who was called in to look at her both told me that because of Medicare rules Mom would have to go home and wait for a week or 10 days until they could operate. Did I mention that she also has Federal Blue Cross/ Blue Shield health insurance from my deceased Dad's retirement?
Problem is that she has knee replacements in both legs, diabetes, neuropathy in both feet, and bowel problems that make it impossible for my wife and I who both work to take care of her as well as our 8 year old son with autism...she is too large for us to lift and is totally immobilized now.
After 4 hours of trying frantically with no luck to find some skilled nursing facility to take care of Mom until the surgery, the doctor finally had to lie to the hospital and pretend that she would be operated on the following day so she could stay in the hospital.
Then to top it all off, the surgeon checked on her at 2 am her first night in the hospital and saw that her broken ankle was not splinted properly and that all blood flow was cut off so he had to re-splint her to save her foot from amputation!! My first question to him upon hearing of this was how would he have checked her and saved her foot (and possibly her life) if the ambulance had taken her back to my house from the emergency room as Medicare demanded??
Lucky, she is still alive!!
November 28, 2011 2:30pm
I personally got sicker when I used the current Medical System. I was diagnosed with: Sjogren’s syndrome, Severe Sleep Apnea, Peripheral Neuropathy, Arthritis, and 250 lbs. I was on 6 Prescriptions.
It took me over 10 yrs to get my Health back. My chronological age is 72 and I feel/look 20 yrs younger, but with better judgment. I’ve kept off 60 lbs for over 4 yrs and enjoying an active life. I’m not allowed to say I’m cured, but I can honestly say, the negative symptoms are close to non-existant.
You can find me on Facebook.
November 28, 2011 2:24pm
One of the most egregious problems with our health care system is that if you are insured, you (your insurance company) pay less for any given procedure than someone without health care. Think about that for a moment. In an equitable system, the cost is the cost. Period. This concept that those without insurance pay double or more for a procedure is a crime and, of course, hits those least able to pay.
November 28, 2011 7:35pm
That to me makes no sense to me. Why should someone with no insurance have to pay full price for the hospital and the insurance pays only about 25% of the bill? That should be the other way around, and should be fixed by the leaders of our country. If you don't have the money to pay this insane price, then the hospital will sue you and garnishee your minimum wage pay to get their money.
November 28, 2011 1:50pm
Thanks for laying out the numbers, which are an extreme mis-match for random Republican spewing. The lamestream media seem never to challenge the lying. I tell everyone that Republicans have actually made it easy to get the truth out of them: whatever they say, just apply the direct opposite, and you will have it. Every day is Opposite Day, and Friday is casual Opposite Day, in Republican-ville.
November 28, 2011 1:32pm
Just look at international statistics. Death of US born babies during their first year is higher than in all of Europe. American pay for prevention. In most of Europe pap tests, mammograms, bone scans, preventive vaccines are free, as is childbirth. The members of Congress should give up their poshy health care paid for with american tax money. They, too, should be forced to use the same system as the people they are supposed to rappresent!
November 28, 2011 1:29pm
I think what Boehner was referring to was HIS health care. I'm sure that of the DC political elites is quite lovely... Me? I've been uninsured for years and finally am poor enough to get a few months on my state funded healthcare plan. Once I start making enough to slightly more than make ends meet, I'll be disqualified. Since I'm self-employed, I'll likely be that way for a long time...
November 28, 2011 1:25pm
If GOP says it It Must be true ?? NOT
November 28, 2011 1:22pm
Our press certainly gives the liars a free ride. In some countries a more independent press would point out the errors, ask follow up questions, cite statistics proving the false claim wrong. Here liars (or, if you want to be charitable, ignoramuses) like Boehner seem to get away with it and are given a big megaphone via industry contributions.
November 28, 2011 7:41pm
That's what the republicans do best"lie". I can't believe any poor or middle class fall for their lies and vote for them. They do, millions actually do vote for them. They need to wake up and vote either independent or democratic. We can only hope. A lot of them would vote for a monkey if it were running as a republican.
November 28, 2011 12:49pm
The latest from these swindlers is that the Republicans want to change Medicare to a system where the government pays part of the premiums for commercial health insurance. You know, the system where the insurance company is trying to maximize profits by keeping the customers from having health care. That system! The one doctors just LOVE so much because they have to employ a huge staff of idiots to keep the paperwork going. Our red-white-and-blue Amurrikan health care system. Best in the world, right?
November 28, 2011 12:49pm
I wish Obama just simply said If you want to keep your for profit health insurance go right ahead, but if not, you can BUY into the Medicare program.
Unfortunatley, the health insurance companies would dump anyone sick, old or depressed asap. The problem is healthcare is a necessity and anything that is a basic necessity to stay alive should not be for profit.
November 28, 2011 12:51pm
And nowhere else is it permitted to be for-profit, even when private. Find out more on Wikipedia!
November 28, 2011 12:40pm
what a (sad) joke. 'best in the world' ???? in WHAT?
this country is worse than CUBA when i come to taking care of the medical needs of its population (and i do not mean to denigrate Cuba one bit).
we are in the greedy hands of a bunch of mobsters (insurance and pharmaceutical companies at the head of the pack), who not only provide mediocre services, they keep looting us, with the help of the politicians they buy (lobbying is a fancy word for BRIBERY, by now everyone should know that well enough).
medical care should NEVER be a for profit business, that is the bottom line; only then we can start talking about universal health care, like all other (more) civilized countries.
November 28, 2011 12:17pm
at a health care conference in kc mo earlier this year one of the speakers pointed out if auto fatalities are removed USA has highest life span so as health care mandate under new law private auto are now ban
Is anyone else trying to figure out what the health insurance industry is spending on all that advertising we are being subjected to all day every day? The question isnt why out even how much, but where is the money coming from? Guess we now know why the cost of insurance is going up and up and.......
November 28, 2011 1:28pm
Private insurance Co have a an admin fee of 20- 25 % Medicare is 3 %
US Must make Health reform stronger not let GOP gut it so huge Co can make even more profits . Simple econ 101 Not that hard to understand
but GOP keeps trying to revise the facts to protect the' guilty ' Fox -Rush fans gobble up the BS like mad