American Healthcare, Some numbers.
Taken from This comment on
Reddit.com
I’ve posted this in a few Health care links:
At the moment the USA pays roughly 15% of its GDP, 5% more than any
other nation, and pays more than DOUBLE the average per
capita for healthcare. How much? DOUBLE This is
extremely wasteful. Universal Health Care makes sense.
The UK enacted health reform in 1948. just after the nightmare of
WWII they were broke. Universal Health Care saves the country money.
The US system in extremely costly and ineffective at delivering
healthcare. It is very effective in transferring money into the pockets
of the Insurance companies and Medical establishments.
World
Health care Organization rankings by performance
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
..
…. .
37 U.S.A
WHO’s assessment system was based on five indicators:
1. overall level of population health;
2. health inequalities (or disparities) within the population;
3. overall level of health system responsiveness (a combination of
patient satisfaction and how well the system acts);
4. distribution of responsiveness within the population (how well
people of varying economic status find that they are served by the
health system);
5. and the distribution of the health system’s financial burden
within the population (who pays the costs).
World
health care Organization rankings by per capita spending
2001 in $ppp(Medical research spending not included)
1 United States: 4,271
2 Switzerland: 3,857
3 Norway: 3,182
4 Denmark: 2,785
5 Luxembourg: 2,731
6 Iceland: 2,701
7 Germany: 2,697
8 France: 2,288
9 Japan: 2,243
10 Netherlands: 2,173
11 Sweden: 2,145
12 Belgium: 2,137
13 Austria: 2,121
14 Canada: 1,939
15 Australia: 1,714
16 Finland: 1,704
17 Italy: 1,676
18 United Kingdom: 1,675
19 Israel: 1,607
20 Ireland:
America #1 in spending yet #37 in performance. Need more be said?
On top of the public purse monies the citizens of the US pay ANOTHER
amount of cash, equal to the amount they pay in taxes, from their own
pockets for their personal healthcare.
So the USA pays approx DOUBLE the OECD average and
yet manages not to have Universal Health Care. It’s a hell of an
achievement. How can Americans pay for a Rolls Royce and yet take
delivery of a Chevy with a puncture?
The USA needs to find the solution every other Western nation has
found Universal Health Care free at the point of
delivery.
What hasn’t it?
This is why. The Medical-Industrial Complex has donated $833,259,267
directly to members of Congress. Not counting the huge amounts of money
given to presidential candidates like Obama, McCain and Kerry, the
biggest donations have gone to the 3 worst industry shills who have been
well-paid to make sure there will never be effective, robust health care
reform:
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $4,026,933)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $2,833,731)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $2,758,468)
And when you just go right to Big Insurance, the non-presidential
candidates who got the biggest legalized bribes were the 7 senators who
have been tasked with the job of killing effective health care
reform.
Ben Nelson (DLC-NE- $1,196,799)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $1,184,113)
Joe Lieberman (DLC- CT- $1,036,302)
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $1,035,530)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $929,207)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA- $884,724)