A spate of new research shows the U.S. behind other countries in cancer survival and diabetes care.
Comment: when i have to listen to what defines America, i turn to George Carlin. (he may get more grumpier with age but he puts it out straight forward.)
Comment: One thing, and probably the only thing, that America is the best at is the is selling of stupid ideas and products to ignorant Americans! Of course we are world class at killing people and being arrogant, not to mention a leader in the torture and rendition activities. Politics have become a game of who can lie the most often and get the most number of idiots to believe them...clearly putting us in the forefront of disfunctional governments with the worse leader possible. What would lead anyone to believe that America's Health Care system is anything but poor...advertising and political lies of course!
Comment: Health Care in America wont change as long as the Corporations are in control of getting their profits maximised. Only a centrally regulated Government system (which doesnt keep dwindling billions for WAR) can help achieve a common standard. Problem is there is no choice when it come to insurance since the Pharmaceuticals work so well with the Insurance companies and Doctors are fine with the Hypocritic oath as long as checks and prescription sheets are filled.
Comment: At last a major news organization is focusing on the"quality" of health care rather than the "cost," which has been out of control for some time. We need more of this. Thank you Sharon Begley...more, more, more of this stuff. Maybe we can get it right.
Comment: Thank you Sharon Begley. At last a major news organization is talking about the "quality" of our helath care system and not the "cost." We need to do more and more of this. Michael Moore's approach, though equally on point, was a bit too radical for us, I guess. But this approach needs to be used as much as possible. We are not and never have been the "best in the world" and we have been paying the price nonetheless. Maybe we can get right before it's too late. Keep up thegood work. Science doesn't lie, at least as long as this administration doesn't get its hands on the fact.
Comment: Despite having no insurance, I am not for universal health care. I am, however, all for health care reform. As a pre-med student, I shadowed a doctor last week and was shocked at how he spent far more time schmoozing with pharmacy reps while he made his patients wait an unnecessarily long time, among other things. And he was what people would consider a good doctor who spent plenty of time with his patients when he finally showed up and all of them told me they loved him. I would have loved him as a patient myself, but seeing everything behind scenes made me a little mad. Medicine has turned from an industry focused on people to an industry focused on profits and business, but caring little about their product or customer satisfaction in return. It is a bad business that thrives because of necessity, advertising, and news articles that sensationalize studies that aren't necessarily even very good and prey on people's fears.
I am scared that med school will turn me into that.
Comment: France has the best healthcare system in the world. We have great hospitals, great doctors and we receive the best care. This is one thing I really regret about France.
Comment: Ms. Begley, you are one of the few to point this out.
("If I have trouble getting my doctor to see me now, what will happen when 47 million more people want appointments?"). This is where you start getting the requisite genuflection to the United States' having "the best health care in the world.
For a comprehensive, politically incorrect discussion, see this site:
http://www.universalhealthcareinfousa.com
Comment: I have come from a communist state where they have free medical care; the statistics, controlled by the goverment , picture a beatiful system, but all of us that lived in it kow, it is a disaster, at least under a dictatorship. I believe though that being one of the most powerful nation in the world we could at least provide free medical care for those "american citizens" that are between jobs or have retired, even at 62.
We can provide "illegal" agents free medical care at our hospitals and free education in our public schools, our old "retired" people are bagging at Publix to pay for the 20% not covered if you own a house or have a little money in the Bank.
Ii is a real shame America!
Comment: Our current health care system is ruining our country, both economically and healthwise. Healthcare is as much a necessity for everyone as fire and police services.
Imagine if our fire and police departments only came to help you if your had "their" insurance. Example scenario: Your neighbor's house is on fire, but doesn't have fire department insurance, so the house burns to the ground and then catches your house on fire. (Now that's dumb.)
Not too different from our current health care system. Many uninsured and under insured people get sick because of lack of coverage. They then infect their neighbors (the insured). A system that works to keep everyone healthy is better for everyone...even the rich fatcats.
Economics: American business attempts to pay health insurance for its employees. This makes us unable to compete in a global business world, because the other civilized countries don't have this added financial burden.
So,all of the Republicans that don't want higher taxes for Universal Health Care are using flawed logic. Our current system doesn't work and costs us more than the taxes would cost us for Universal Health Care. And to those that say Universal Health care doesn't work work well in some other country. Let's be American and create a better system. (Or aren't Americans smart enough?)
One more example of how STUPID we are for accepting our current situation. We go to work and have a health care policy. If we get really sick (which is why we need insurance), we eventually may be unable to work for an extended period of time. We lose our job, can't afford to pay for Cobra (because we lost our job), and lose all health coverage. We then go broke. What a great system we have. Health insurance that doesn't provide us with anything, if we actually need it because we are too ill to go to work.
if you vote for someone who is against Universal Coverage, you are voting for someone that who is uniformed, uneducated, and just plain stupid. I haven't yet met a single person that can argue with this simple logic.
Comment: Why do we have insurance companies in essence dictating treatment. I say "in essence" because insurance companies will say they only set fee limits, but patients choose treatments based on what is covered by their insurance. Some patients simply can't afford otherwise, but some patients believe that if an insurance company won't pay for something, then it must not be necessary. Insurance companies ARE NOT doctors. They are not sitting in the exam room with a patient's chart and the patient. Doctors are not perfect. Most doctors I know are sincerely trying to help their patients. Most doctors nowadays do worry about lawsuits and the bottom line because insurance companies and lawyers have squeezed them to that point. Hospitals take huge hits on costs for treatments to the uninsured or underinsured. Hospitals squeeze doctors to charge what they can for procedures especially for their insured patients. Anyone who thinks the insured patients aren't paying the uninsured are naive. We all pay for it in one way or another. My question: Do socialized medicine countries such as Australia or Great Britain have insurance companies comparable to the US?? I say let's pick on the middle man taking the profits. How many insurance company buildings that are over 20 stories tall with marble entryways does it take for us to say enough is enough.
Comment: ploughman said on 3/24/2008 12:02:51 PM:
"We don't have the best health care system, just the most expensive."
And this article explains why. We waste money on unproven and ineffective treatments. We waste money on IT systems that do nothing, save to present even more worthless, overwhelming, and unnecssary information to a provider that is taxed to see 60 patients a day just to make sure they can pay for their practice, their malpractice insurance, and maybe their bills for college. Our providers have been replaced by advertisments for the next snake-oil, which the patients demand, only to find out later that the snake oil's side effects have placed them at risk for 100 other problems. Then they sue. Doctors do CAT scans and MRI when all indications and symptomology rule out the need, because if they do not, and the patient is the 1 in 100,000 that has a more serious issue, they will lose everything.
You want cheaper health care? Let the doctors be doctors. Understand that people die. Understand that medicine is less a science, and more a gamble against the odds, where your provider tells you what the to bet on to get the statistical best outcome for your condition. Stop calling your lawyer when you don't get better, as your condition is less likely caused by your practitioner, and more likely caused by yourself.
Or demand universal health care at low expense to you. One thing i can promise you: Congress will pass it as an entitlement to you, but you will get neither healthcare nor a low cost.
Comment: good points!
Comment: We don't have the best health care system, just the most expensive.
Comment: Start with the INSURANCE industry.
Now, and so you're clear on this, I'm NOT talking about the health insurance industry, but the malpractice and liability concerns that regulate doctors and hospitals.
Take a look at the 'care' that malpractice-insurance 'protocol' driven doctors are *allowed* to give patients. Take a look at how hospitals will redundantly yoke doctors with mandatory procedures that guarantee highest procedural profit/risk returns.
Average that care to the largest percentile.. and you guessed it!
50/50.
Tell me that a system that calculates the profit-margin for the investor AHEAD of the actual reality of what any given 'average' patient may need, is going to be much better chance than natural even odds of being correct?
Maybe it will be much like the 54.9% quality rating across-the-board that was found in the NEJM healthcare quality survey here: (doesn't the 55% of medically 'satisfied' customers in your article sound too close for coincidence? I thought so too..) http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/11/1147
Not to get too didactic here, but I detect a little bit of PC speak in how the numbers parse out in your article. Satisfied vs. 'unsatisfied' - as though there were 55% of people getting 100% of the care they need.
Hello?
This viewpoint seems a bit of simplistic fantasy.
Stop for a second and *think* about how you may approach medicine, if you see it the actual way it is.
I'll make a peerless prognostication that the true numbers are that everyone gets sub-standard care - EVERYONE - including yourselves, your families and friends. All of you with good corporate jobs with bulletproof coverage are STILL subject to 'care' that is limited by the MD's malpractice restrictions.. Even filthy rich people get the same 'care' - look to the studies! Are you really getting 100% of what you need when you need it? Would you know the difference if you weren't?
Scary, isn't it?
Start with the unimaginable - that it is these malpractice mandated 'protocols' that MD's blithely and blindly follow that have the quality of care down to a fraction of what it should be.
Health 'care' given by insurance protocol 'fiat' isn't about health. It is about profit.
Wake UP!
THAT is a BIG part of what Ms. Begley calls .."the poor U.S. showing."
Regards,
Deb.
Comment: The government caused the entire problem with health care in America by over socializing (with unfunded mandates) medicine to the extent it is not completive. The government allows a monopolistic pharmaceutical environment, and the FDA a federal agency failing American citizens and needs be eliminated or completely re-organized; it???s corrupt, and is causing a major impact on the cost of healthcare in America, and we want to exacerbate the problem? http://www.InteliOrg.com/
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