Wed, Nov 25 2009
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Published August 23, 2009 04:44 pm - We are the most industrialized country in the world. America has sick health-care system A ROBERT LEBZELTER column Star Beacon We are the most industrialized country in the world. We suck up a majority of the resources. We have great wealth. But our health-care system is a mess. We spend more than any other industrialized country to keep ourselves healthy. Our drugs cost more. Our doctors’ visits cost more. Yet we are far from the healthiest people in the world. We are the only industrialized country where you can work hard all of your life, get a serious injury or illness and have your life’s savings vanish. According to the Kaiser Health Foundation, health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.2 trillion in 2007, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and more than eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980. In 2007, U.S. health care spending was about $7,421 per resident and accounted for 16.2 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product; this is among the highest of all industrialized countries. As employers are squeezed to save money, they either drop insurance altogether, or provide insurance that costs the employee more each month while requiring heftier co-pays. Other industrialized countries, including our neighbors to the north in Canada, as well as England and France, have guaranteed medical insurance for all residents and they pay far less for far better coverage. In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in the U.S. was $6,714; in Canada, $3,678. (American dollars.) The U.S. spent 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care in that year; Canada spent 10 percent. What might be more important, in Canada and England, insurance companies can't reject your request to pay a bill because the procedure is experimental or is a pre-existing condition or your didn't inform your insurance company that you sneezed twice in a row in 2006, negating coverage, or any of the crazy reasons they give for denying coverage. I remember the woman who called me to tell about how when her doctor informed her that her husband had a fatal disease, not only were they told they must cope with that horrible news, but the doctor said be prepared to lose your home and belongings, because of insurance policy. She kept her house only by living frugally, not turning lights on, keeping the heat low. Or the woman in Albion who was told she had cancer in both breasts, but her insurance would pay to treat only one. In Canada, they don't need fundraisers to help sick people with ineffective insurance. So a major overhauling of our system is necessary. The easiest move, pattern ourselves after what they are doing in places like Canada and England and France. We can pick and choose the best parts. We can avoid the pitfalls. That seems the logical choice. 
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