Current Condition

U.S. Health Care: poor performance;
and U.S. Health Care Financing: citizens lose twice

Current Condition of U.S. Health Care: poor performance

• We are not getting our money’s worth.
  • We have a complex, inefficient system of health insurance; as a result, The United States spends far more for health care per person than the other industrialized countries.
  • Our average health outcomes are significantly worse than other countries. The World Health Organization 2005 report ranks the U.S. 29th in maternal mortality and 27th in life expectancy.
    • Our mothers die more frequently than mothers in other countries during the birthing process; and we live shorter lives.
    • Citizens of other countries are more satisfied with their health care system than we are with ours. – See “World’s Best Medical Care?” PNHP 8-20-07
  • Observation: This is an outrageous situation of deaths and dissatisfaction.
• The problem of wait times is significant in the United States.
• We now have the new situation, which became dramatic during 2006 and 2007: hundreds of thousands of people going every year to other countries for health care with these results:
  • less use of our own already under-utilized medical resources,
    • PNHP: “Is it the prices?” 9-14-07 2nd par. under “Comment”
  • further drain on our economy, and
  • an undesirable bonus: a large contribution to global warming with hundreds of thousands of passenger flights.

Current Condition of U.S. Health Care Financing: citizens lose twice

• Citizens and businesses are losing twice
  • For-profit bureaucracy due to health insurance companies
  • Government bureaucracy related to health care
• The U.S. stands alone in not providing health care for all of its citizens. Every other industrialized country in the world has a system of financing that provides Health Care for All. For information, see this: systems of other countries.
• The situation is so bad that public spending is high enough to cover everyone via the more efficient method: single-payer national health insurance. Public spending in the U.S. covers 26% of our population. Public spending in Europe, Canada, and Australia is much lower per person and provides Health Care for All, covering 99 to 100% of their people.
  • See the bar chart titled “It’s the Highest in the World” at www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1510
  • For more information about public spending see “Private plans pay for so little for so many”. — PNHP 12-4-06
• Single-payer provides improved efficiency compared to the very poor efficiency of our current health care financing. Hundreds of billions of more “health care dollars” should be spent on health care instead of excessive administrative costs.

Observation about what is sometimes called Medical Tourism: Various estimates put the number of U.S. citizens getting care in other countries during 2007 as high as 500,000. Better, more efficient, high quality care might sometimes involve traveling some miles to a particular U.S. facility for excellent care from a specialist. But at least the efficient, excellent care is within the U.S. medical professionals and facilities and not half way around the world! We need to care for our people and care for the U.S. economy! We, the People Want Support

PNHP = Physicians for a National Health Program; www.pnhp.org