Every now and then some conservative will tell me that liberals are out to destroy the best health care system in the world. With typical American arrogance he or she will swear to you that no other country in the world is better served by the medical and insurance industries than the United States is. It is part and parcel of their argument against the Affordable Health Care Act, derisively dubbed, Obamacare.
As with most issues, my conservative friends will never let the facts intrude upon their fantasies, no matter how outlandish they are.
NBC News ran a story yesterday on line by one Maggie Fox. She cited a study commissioned by the National Institute of Health and conducted by The National Research Council and the U.S. Institute of Medicine. It compared the health of Americans to that of Canadians, Australians, Japanese and thirteen European countries. In other words a sackful of industrialized nations who aren't mired in all the problems associated with undeveloped countries and the third world in general.
Americans run into trouble at the moment of birth. The study finds that the infant mortality rate in the U.S. is 32.7 deaths per 100,000. Infant mortality rates in the other countries surveyed range from 15 to 25 per 100,000. At the back end of the our time here it found American men have the shortest life expectancy of all 16 nations at 75.6 years. The Swiss have the longest at 79 years. American women on average last 81 years on the planet, which is second to last. Japanese women have a life expectancy of 86.
Americans not only have a higher rate of infant mortality and shorter life expectancies, but we also have higher incidences of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, obesity and disabilities.
Then we get to the violence. As everyone should be able to guess we have higher violent injury and homicide rates than everyone else too. In fact the average American is seven times more likely to be murdered than citizens of the other 16 nations. We are twenty times more likely to be killed by a gun.
Ahh, but at what cost you ask. Well the study found the average American spends $8,600 on health care per year, a number which includes insurance premiums. That is twice the amount spent by Britons, the French, and Swedes despite a large portion of their tax dollars going to government subsidized health care systems.
The only good news in all this is that if you are an American and do make it to 75 your chances are better at lasting a bit longer than other nationalities who also reach that age. We also have a lower death rate due to cancer. And despite the higher risks of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes we do better jobs of controlling our blood pressure and cholesterol. Praise the Lord and pass the Lipitor.
Ms. Fox rolled out a number of experts to try to explain these dreadful numbers. They talked about our addiction to cars and therefore lack of exercise and our love of fast food. They also addressed the almost involuntary American reaction that most of us have when told we shouldn't do something by some authority. Nothing will get us to super size an order of fries quicker than a mayor saying super sized fries should be banned from the city limits. Just as nothing will drive gun sales higher than the threat of the government cracking down on assault style weapons.
We aren't, by God, going to be told what to do, even if it kills us.
Unfortunately, according to these statistics, it is.
In this country we have become so utterly convinced that everything we do, that everything we have is so far superior to what the rest of the world does and has, it blinds us to the cold facts. Our myopia in this regard is our greatest weakness. We will not accept any idea, any change that even feels like it comes from beyond our shores. If it isn't American it will somehow infringe upon our freedom and won't work, at least not here.
It is something to think about the next time some asshole rails on about government death panels and such. The truth is we all ready have them. They are located in the offices of insurance companies all across this great land. If you don't think so just switch your health plan from one carrier to another and then read the letter about pre-existing conditions not being covered.
Yes, we maybe great in many ways, but it is painfully obvious that when it comes to health and health care we're downright mediocre, if not cruelly incompetent and criminally lax.
To paraphrase the New Hampshire license tag motto, "Live Free and Die."
It is, after all, The American Way.
1-10-13
No comments:
Post a Comment