Instead of discussing the pros and cons of Nationalized Healthcare, I thought today would be a good day to take a good look at how Nationalized Healthcare in the rest of the world compares with the current U.S. Healthcare System.According to John C. Goodman, May 25, 2009, National Review:
1. The U.S. uses fewer doctors than the average developed country to produce the same or better outcomes. We also use fewer nurses and fewer hospital beds, make fewer phsician visits, and spend fewer days in the hospital. About the only thing we use more of is technology.
2. The largest international study to date found that the five-year survival rate for all types of cancer among both men and women was higher in the U.S. than Europe.
3. Fewer health and disibility related problems occur among U.S. spinal cord injury patients than among Canadian and British patients.
4. Britain has only 1/4 as many CT scanners per capita as the U.S., and 1/3 as many MRI scanners.
5. The rate at which the British provide coronary-bypass surgery or angioplasty to heart patients is only 1/4 the U.S. rate, and hip replacements are only 2/3 the U.S. rate.
6. The rate for treating kidney failure (dialysis or transplant) is five times higher in the U.S. for patients between the ages of 45 and 84, and nine times higher for patients 85 years or older.
7. Nearly 1.8 million Britons are waiting for hospital or outpatient treatments at any given time. In 2002-2004, dialysis patients waited an average of 16 days for permanent blood-vessel access in the U.S., 20 days in Europe, and 62 days in Canada.
8. In 2000, Norwegian patients waited an average 133 days for hip replacement, 63 days for cataract surgery, 160 days for knee replacement adn 46 days for bypass surgery after being approved for treatment (short waits for such surgeries produce better outcomes).
9. Studies show that only 5% of Americans wait more than 4 months for surgery, compared with 23% of Australians, 26% of New Zealanders, 27% of Canadians, and 36% of Britons.
10. It is said that those who pay directly will scimp on preventative care. But, the proportion of middle-aged Canadian women who have never had a mammogram is twice that of the U.S., and three times as many Canadian women have never had a Pap smear.
11. Fewer than a fifth of canadian men have ever been tested for prostrate specific antigen, compared with about half of American men. Only one in 10 adult Canadians has had a colonoscopy, compared with about a third of adult Americans.
12. Likewise, the mortality rate in Canada is 25% higher for prostate cancer, and 13% higher for colo-rectal cancer.
13. While half of all diabetics have high blood pressure, it is controlled in 36% of U.S. cases, compared with only 9% of cases in Canada.
14. Of 46 million uninsured in the U.S., about 12 million are eligible for such public programs as Medicaid and the S-CHIP, and about 17 million are living in households with annual incomes of at least $50,000, suggesting that they are uninsured by choice.
15. Like unemployment, uninsurance is usually transitory: 75% of uninsured spells last one year or less, and 91% last two years or less.
16. Guaranteed issue laws, state high-risk pools, and retroactive Medicaid eligibility make it increasingly easy to obtain insurance after becoming ill in the U.S.
17. In Canada, the wealthy and powerful have significantly greater access to medical specialists than do the less well connected poor. High profile patients enjoymore frequent services, shorter waiting times, and greater choice of specialists.
18. Non-elderly, white, low-income Canadians are 22% more likely to be in poor health than their U.S. counterparts.
Plus I can add some:
19. 60% of uninsured are illegal aliens
20. 25,000 uninsured choose not to get health insurance
You may also wish to check out, The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care," by Sally Pipes.
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