I was just reading a magazine called Patient Safety and Quality Health Care (I know, fun reading!), and ran across a quote that kind of floored me. We have had much discussion about access to health care, and which systems have what benefits and draw-backs. OK, I'll just get to the point:
"According to the World Health Organization's 'The World Health Report 2000 - Health systems; Improving Performance:
The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 our of 191 countries according to its performance....
The United Kingdom, which spends just six percento of the GDP on health services, ranks 18th."
I just found this very interesting, and wondered how the rankings were made.
The main point of the article was that the U.S. has actually provides universal health coverage to 305 million citizens and legal residents. The big difference is that facilities that receive money (grants, subsidies, etc.) under Title XVI of the Public Health Service Act are required to provide uncompensated services in perpetuity.
In other words, people go to emergency rooms instead of clinics, costing much, much more. These people have almost no continuity of care, and little or no preventitive health care.
Just think, if we could take the trillions spent on this, put it into a system like the U.K. has, maybe we could have the best of that system; there would be enough funding to pay doctors well, provide healthcare to everyone without the waits that seem to plague countried with universal health care, and have a heck of a lot more healthy people.
I know that my summary is too simple, there would have to be a lot of planning and bargaining, and there would probably be inequity in health care, still, with wealthier people still being able to pay to go to private clinics or something like that. Sigh, I can dream, though.
I'm climbing down off my soapbox now, and getting ready to go to a Laura Love concert that I forgot I was going to. I really should have taken a nap instead of reading that magazine! Good music usually makes me feel better, forget pain, and forget any worries. Laura Love is an Afro-Celtic musician with a great sense of humor. I found her by accident when I wandered into a free concert in a park in Seattle a few years ago.
Hope you all have a good evening! Maybe tomorrow I can catch up with you all some more.
Hugs,
Kathy