Friday, February 26, 2010

The Cost Of Health Care vs. Life Expectancy: National Geographic

While thumbing through the current issue of my National Geographic Magazine, I ran across this interesting blurb:
The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost? The U.S. has a fee-for-service system—paying medical providers piecemeal for appointments, surgery, and the like. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn’t reliably improve a patient’s health. Says Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, “More care does not necessarily mean better care.”  —Michelle Andrews (emphasis mine)
It was accompanied by this chart, which pretty much spells out everything (click on the chart to enlarge):

Naturally, I navigated over to their web site and found the article so I could post it here.

This is one of the reasons I've always loved this magazine.

Clear, concise comparisons.

After taking a look at this, even the most ignorant American has to realize that there is something terribly, terribly wrong with this picture.

Most countries with "socialized" health care are doing far better at keeping their citizens alive... and doing it far more cheaply than we do.

We can't afford to "do nothing."
We can't affford to "start over."

The time to do something is NOW.

h/t to National Geographic Magazine Blog Central.

1 comment:

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