We can't afford to not have national health care

[RedEarth]

The United States has some of the poorest measures of health in the world, and often we are among the worst. Among developed countries, we trail those with national health systems in almost every way health care is measured.

Compared to European countries we have the highest infant mortality. The average in the U.S. is worst than the infant-death rate among the poorest of Canada. Mothers don’t do well here, either - we have a maternal death rate that is between two and three times that of the Europeans. At the other end of the age spectrum, we have the shortest life expectancy when compared to all European countries, Australia and Japan.

And even for those lucky enough to have insurance, 28 percent report having difficulty getting needed care. Of course, we know they all have to wait in long lines to get care in those European countries, right?

Wrong - the percent of people in the other countries report having to wait at much lower rates than we do - only about 15 percent report difficulty getting care.

But we all know they control health care spending in those countries by rationing health care, right? Wrong again!

Take a look at high cost procedures and compare how we do:

Bone marrow transplants - we’re just average, Australia, France and Italy have higher rates;

hospital stays - everyone is higher than us (anybody in your family forced out of the hospital because insurance isn’t going to pay for more days?);

Denmark, Italy and Japan have more MRI units per capita than we do;

everyone of the European countries, Canada and Australia have more nurses per patient than we do;

and the mentally ill get more services in the other countries than citizens of the U.S. get here.

These facts have been published in respectable medical journals and are all available for anyone who wants to check them on the Physicians for a National Health Plan Website (www.pnhp.org).

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/august/we_cant_afford_to_n.php