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I won't even begin to try and tell what this week has been like. The result is very little blogging.
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The following is from my good friend Claire [I do not know which day this appeared].
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A post at Washington Monthly this morning:
A pair of researchers has just published an update that compares various countries on their rates of "amenable mortality," defined as deaths that are "potentially preventable with timely and effective health care." In 1997, the United States ranked 15th out of 19 industrialized countries. So how are we doing now?
Answer: we're now 19th out of 19. The rest of the countries have improved their performance by an average of 16%, while the U.S., that well-known engine of healthcare innovation, has improved by only 4%. So now we're in last place at 110.
But there's a bright side: at least our healthcare isn't funded by the government, like it is in France. Keep that in mind if someone you know dies of preventable causes. Their odds would have been a whole lot better in Paris, but who'd want to live in a socialist hellhole like that anyway?
4 comments:
I believe we can do better than we're doing. One positive thing about being one of the only first-world nations which doesn't have a universal healthcare plan, is that we can learn from everyone else's mistakes and successes. Unfortunately right now we seem to have the worst aspects of both public and private systems.
Mel,
I think you're correct - some of both the good and the bad ... and maybe someday we'll sort it out and everyone will have easy access to QUALITY care.
Jim ... your last paragraph is sarcastic right?
Sheila,
not my words, but from the article. but, yes, i detect sarcasm at work there.
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