The Observation Deck

One of the sad facts of the Canadian system is that well connected politicans and their well connected followers have access to better care:

You cannot pick and choose anecdotal information and use it to "prove" Canadian healthcare is poor.

The media and political community have made a big deal out of the fact that the U.S. ranks 37 out of 191 countries on the World Health Organization’s Health Care Ranking System. Is this tool a credible way to compare quality health care delivered in the U.S. vs the rest of the world?

Grace O'Malley wrote:Stephen

You apparently equate "better" health care with "more expensive" health care.

If the rankings were based on the amount spent, the US would lead the pack.

In summary, therefore, the WHO ranking system has minimal objectivity in its “ranking” of world health. It more accurately can be described as a ranking system inherently biased to reward the uniformity of “government” delivered (i.e. “socialized”) health care, independent of the care actually delivered. In that regard the relatively low ranking of the US in the WHO system can be viewed as a “positive” testament to at least some residual “free market” influence (also read “personal freedom”) in the American Health Care system. The American health care consumer needs to understand what the WHO ranking does and does not say about American health. Don’t be fooled by “big government” politicians and the liberal media who are attempting to use this statistic to push for socialized medicine in the United States. It says essentially nothing about the delivery of health care or the quality of that delivery in the US. It does say that, so far, the American health care consumer has at least some personal freedom to seek the best health care available, and is not yet relegated to the “one size fits all” philosophy of government sponsored health care systems.

"more expensive" health care

Stephen Eisel wrote:http://smartgirlnation.com/2009/06/popu ... re-system/

The media and political community have made a big deal out of the fact that the U.S. ranks 37 out of 191 countries on the World Health Organization’s Health Care Ranking System. Is this tool a credible way to compare quality health care delivered in the U.S. vs the rest of the world?

Bill, I would be very interested to hear your opinion on the attached article.. thanks

Jim DeVito wrote:And yes Grace we do.

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/spend.php

Note the graph in the middle. Where we seem to rank near the bottom in life expediency yet spend a crazy amount compared to others. I'll admit the data is old. up to the year 2000 I think. What are we doing wrong?

Jim DeVito wrote:I vote admin costs. A friend of mine just filled out an application for new insurance. The form was 16 pages long double sided and that was not even the health questioner.

Stan Austin wrote:Competition, return on investment, and private market are all the primary drivers of our much too expensive health care system. And, that system generally ranks about number 26 of all the developed countries in most major categories. Most expensive, very mediocre results. We even rank below Cuba in infant mortality.
A single payer system, government run, would go a long way towards improving the deficiencies of an over reliance on a private market system.
Stan Austin

Stan Austin wrote:A single payer system, government run, would go a long way towards improving the deficiencies of an over reliance on a private market system.

Stan Austin

Actually, the PM going where he chooses for a procedure is really no different than how things operate here in the US.