Think You're Getting Good Healthcare in the US? Think Again
In 2006, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System studied reports and metrics from other organizations like the World Health Organization, and developed a scorecard that told the tale of American Healthcare. The bottom line was that American healthcare was failing its citizens miserably.
But, too few of us paid attention. And, since it wasn't a presidential election year, even the politicians didn't much care.
The scorecard was developed using 37 points, including measures of premature deaths that could have been prevented, readmissions to hospitals, access to care, even use of electronic medical records.
But here we are, two years later, and the Commonwealth Fund has issued a new scorecard for 2008. Is it any surprise that we've gone even further down the tubes with the care offered to American citizens? Well. It shouldn't be.
Here are some examples of the woeful state of care in the US. These are cold, hard numbers that tell the real story:
- Access to care -- that means a combination of the people who either don't have health insurance, or their health insurance is inadequate to provide them with the care they need, has fallen to 75 million people. The number we usually see is "only" 47 million. That's 42% of us who don't have adequate insurance -- meaning -- if there are 10 adults standing in a room, at least 4 of them could lose everything they've got because they'll have to pay for healthcare they can't afford.
- In 2006, the US ranked 15th in quality of care, as compared to the 19 industrialized nations that WHO reported on. At least there were 4 other countries that were worse than we were.
No longer true. Now we are 19th. Dead last. No pun intended.
- Basic, preventive care is woefully lacking. Only half of adults get the recommend preventive screenings they need.
- The cost of health insurance premiums rose far faster than wages, as a percentage.
- Americans are failing to keep up with healthcare debt in larger numbers. Fully 41% said they can't keep up with their healthcare bills.
This year's scorecard won't be ignored in quite the same ways because we're in the midst of a presidential election year. But somehow too many Americans continue to delude themselves into thinking we get decent healthcare.
Please realize that it's us citizens that need to begin the groundswell toward change. We need to step up and make our wishes known. We need to pay attention to what the presidential candidates are proposing and decide whose ideas make the most sense to us.
Because this IS America. And it follows what the people SAY they want. That means we need to let our elected officials, and our elected officials-to-be know just what it is we DO want...
...Adequate, decent, effective, affordable healthcare for all Americans.
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Photo © Jason Stitt - Fotolia.com
Comments
It’s important to know where the candidates stand. McCain “believes that insurance reforms should increase the variety and affordability of insurance coverage available to American families by fostering competition and innovation.” Obama guarantees mental health parity, promotes federal insurance for all, and says, “Guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away FROM ANY INSURANCE PLAN because of illness / pre-existing conditions.” (Quotes from candidates’ websites.)
Marcia Purse
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I watched my employees agonize over which child to cover on their self-plus-one healthcare plan, all they could afford. How do you predict which child of four will get sick or injured?
In the end we end up paying more for this so-called system…because those without coverage get ALL their care at the ER, the most expensive place of all.
We should be embarrassed.
A democracy is only useful to people with both the awareness and courage to use it. Americans brag about their freedom and democracy, but sadly most of us are like ostriches with our heads in the sand.
As a government hospital administrator, I’ve been to several high-level seminars on the health care system and how it could be changed. Frankly, I’ve simply been left in despair. Any universal system proposed will mean rationing and a lower level of care for everyone. Americans are so used to getting Cadillac care, on somebody else’s dime, and suing if things aren’t perfect. We are all going to have to accept even lower levels of care if we want universal health care.
Wendy thinks our health care will get even worse than it is, if we go to a single-payer system.
And yet, several of the countries in the WHO study are single-payer system countries, and their care is better than that in the US, according to WHO’s statistics.
I agree with Wendy that a single-payer system will be very different than a private insurer system, and that we’ll all have to make adjustments.
But the private companies underwriting these high-level seminars that you’re attending, Wendy, are serving only themselves if they’re scaring you into inaction and despair. With so many Americans uninsured and underinsured, the situation is already as bad as it needs to be. As with the energy/environment debate, we need to shift our thinking to how we’ll create the best and fairest single-payer system in the US, not whether we should even start.