Why Health Care Needs Reform or time to sospital the US population
The US spends 16% of its GDP on Health care, Britain spends 9.1%, Canada is at 9.7%, and Germany is at 9.7%. One of the main arguments against Universal health care (which isn't what Obama is really offering, and I wish he would) is that the costs are too high.
Not only are we paying more, but we are not getting as good outcomes for the care provided. Those under British and Canadian health care systems report better outcomes to medical treatment, as well as having a higher average life expectancy than the USA. The life expectancy in Canada is 80.34 years, United Kingdom 78.7 years and the United States, 78.06 years. True these numbers are close, but they are also shifting and the US continues to slide down further below these other countries.
As of 2007, 42 percent of all working age adults were either uninsured or under insured. The US also fell from 15th to last among 19 industrialized nations when it comes to premature deaths that could potentially have been prevented by timely access to effective health care. Health insurance premiums rose far faster than wages, rising as a share of median incomes (Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, higher than the increase in workers’ wages (3.7 percent) or the overall inflation rate (2.6 percent) This is according to the 2007 Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust). Oh, and insurance protection eroded.
By 2007, 41 percent of adults reported that they had medical debt or trouble paying medical bills, up from 34 percent in 2005. Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers. In 2005 Dr. Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led a study of heath care costs and bankruptcy, spoke out.
"Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy... Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent"
CLICK TO MAKE LARGER
More info found at HHS
**Look I used my endangered word :D
Not only are we paying more, but we are not getting as good outcomes for the care provided. Those under British and Canadian health care systems report better outcomes to medical treatment, as well as having a higher average life expectancy than the USA. The life expectancy in Canada is 80.34 years, United Kingdom 78.7 years and the United States, 78.06 years. True these numbers are close, but they are also shifting and the US continues to slide down further below these other countries.
As of 2007, 42 percent of all working age adults were either uninsured or under insured. The US also fell from 15th to last among 19 industrialized nations when it comes to premature deaths that could potentially have been prevented by timely access to effective health care. Health insurance premiums rose far faster than wages, rising as a share of median incomes (Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 6.1 percent in 2007, higher than the increase in workers’ wages (3.7 percent) or the overall inflation rate (2.6 percent) This is according to the 2007 Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust). Oh, and insurance protection eroded.
By 2007, 41 percent of adults reported that they had medical debt or trouble paying medical bills, up from 34 percent in 2005. Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers. In 2005 Dr. Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led a study of heath care costs and bankruptcy, spoke out.
"Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy... Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent"
CLICK TO MAKE LARGER
More info found at HHS
**Look I used my endangered word :D