HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

Since it appears that we're gearing up for a national debate on health care, I thought it would be helpful to provide some basic health care information. FRONTLINE had a pretty good program on health care around the world last year, which you can access here. The report focuses on five "western" nations and compares health care results in a number of areas.

The first FRONTLINE graph shows us what we all know: America spends far more than any other nation in world for health care.


Opponents of a public option for America usually respond that paying more for better care is a good trade off, especially since our quality of life is bettter. Well, they need to take another look. It turns out that we're not living as long as the "socialists" who have socialized medicine.


It doesn't get any better when we look at infant mortality rates either. In fact, according to the CIA World Fact Book, we're #45 and lag behind the likes of Cuba, Greece, and Portugal. So much for the sanctity of life.



How about MRI units per million? We're a distant second. And though we have more MRI units and CT (CAT) scan units than some of the other countries (but not Japan), it turns out that these units are made necessary by the sorry state of preventative care in this country, especially since 1 in 7 Americans don't have health insurance.


There are other issues we need to discuss when it comes to health care in America - like how our current state makes us less competitive economically, how half all bankruptcy filings are tied to catastrophic health care costs (and half of these people have health insurance), program costs, etc. - but I'll save these issues for another day.

- Mark