We Are What We Treat

I am an American living in the UK and have been here for 7 years. The founding principle of the NHS is that care is available to everyone, and is "free at the point of service." My co-workers here are shocked to hear that in the United States someone with cancer who loses his job and his health insurance may be denied treatment if he doesn't have the money to pay for it, or that paying for treatment may result in bankruptcy. This state of affairs is considered barbaric.

"Britain, land of the stiff upper lip, provides what to us seems shockingly minimalist treatment. It doesn't even cover regular physicals for adults, which is what you get when you spend 8 percent GDP on health care (versus our 16 percent)."

I would like to note a couple of things about this and your article:

1. I do not find the care here to be "shockingly minimalist," in fact, my husband, who like Mr Reid also has problems with his shoulder, was referred to physio for that and for a problem with his wrist. I have yearly cancer followup visits with a specialist which I would not be receiving in the US according to what I was told by my US doctor.
2. The value of a yearly generic physical has not been established. What we do get here with the NHS is screening based on established risk factors, eg mammograms for women based on age and medical history.
3. There are a lot of reasons why the UK spends only 8% of GDP on health care. One big reason is that the vast bureaucracy set up to define what is covered, write policies, mine data for pre-existing conditions, fill in forms, make payments, etc etc etc etc, just doesn't exist here. A couple of other reasons I can think of off the top of my head are that the NHS is non-profit and the money goes to benefit the public, not shareholders and CEOs, and the NHS does not spend billions on drug advertising.

This is not to say the NHS is perfect. A "postcode lottery" in which the quality of care can depend on where you live does exist, and there are many aspects that could be managed better. However, I don't know anyone here that would want what exists now in the US.

The American mentality on health care is to spend more money. By spending more the American public thinks we are going to get a better system. We are already the biggest spenders in the world on healthcare, yet our people are not the healthiest.
Yes , we desperately need a new approach and attitude towards health care.

Something as simple as a good health fitness program or a bodybuilding program can start us on our way to a healthier society. Why aren't the doctors promoting exercise routines, cardio workouts, fitnessbuilding, etc. Maybe because it doesn't cost anything. May because we will save billions of dollars and have a healthier society.

Mr. Reid, I agree with you the American public is" getting a crazy bad deal by spending so much" and getting a lot less than we deserve.

David Aston, resident advisor to: http://fitnessbuilding.com

Makes sense to me.

FACTS to remember:

1. Our government already spends 10.8 per cent of GDP on health care (40% of the total cost). OUR governments (Federal State and local) ALREADY spend the money on health care that it would take to fully fund a single payer system just like the ones the REST OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD already enjoys. In other words, if we weren't so selfish, frightened, stupid and corrupt we cold have a decent and HUMANE health care system at no additional cost.

2. We ALREADY spend 70% more on health care per capita than the next most expensive system in the world and 50 million of us aren't even covered. Our health care costs now represent nearly 18% of our GDP while the rational the world experiences a cost between 7 and 10% of GDP

3. We rank number 37th between Costa Rica and Slovinia in measurable health care outcomes.

Given these numbers there is only one question left to ask.

Why are WE so stupid?

Americans suffer from mental illness, Brain washed and controled to beleive what ever the politicans tells them to accept as truth. The very Idea that America has never been invaded, and people think being in Iraq Afghanistan, has something to do with self defence. Most Afghan people can't feed their family where are they going to get the money for a flight to America?.

When people are Brain washed enough to accept what lieing politicans tells them there is no hope for Americans. Healthcare was just playing on peoples fears, like the Military excercises on Sept 11th that went live, that has been going on for years and Americans thopught some dead guy called Bin Layden attacked them. No one wonders why they have never caught this dead guy. Americans attacked Americans to start their wars, and was willing to use Nuclear attack on Russia if they objected to the invasion on Afghanistan. Not even Bush knew what was going on, because he was not told. Those who runs America wants 100 year war, war on terror to secure the worlds resources to maintain their way of life that is slipping away with the emergance of China. They want China out of Africa, because China is willing to go 50 - 50 with Africans while the Anglo Americans wants African minerals for nothing.

The latest I have heard they want to militarise the whole of Africa to keep out the Chinese, Bush gave Africa plenty of money to secure their presence in Africa, and Obama last visit to to bolster the American African adventure and the soon to come attack on SUDAN. Obama is the smoke screen being used on Africans and the Arabs, Obama selected to do one job fool the Arab and African world. Obama is not about domestic policies but how to use an image to fool the Africans and the Arabs.

It will be difficult to move away from an employer based system when the largest employer group insurance program in the country is compliments of the Federal Employees. The other issue is the coffers of each politician that are full of dollars from special interest groups including unions and professional business groups.

This statement made absolutely no sense:

"Once, the norm was to work for a single employer for one's entire career. Today, people change jobs an average of 11 times before they reach 40. Fear of losing health coverage keeps people in jobs they would otherwise leave, creating a drag on economic efficiency."

Are you serious? leaving a job every 3.something years does not seem like fear to me. Are you proposing that people would leave even more often that they already do?? Absurd comment at best.