Thursday, January 04, 2018

American's missing healthcare

“Don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly.” Republican. Alan Grayson,  2009

While the U.S. does have its share of first-rate physicians, nurses, clinics and hospitals, gaining access to them remains an obstacle for millions of Americans.  The reality is that the U.S. still lags behind the rest of the developed world—as well as some developing countries—when it comes to providing health care. The World Health Organization once hailed the French health care system as the best in the world. Universal health care is not only the standard in Europe it is also the norm in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Israel and Japan. In Latin America, universal health care is the law of the land in Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil.


Taiwan went from having about 43 percent of its people uninsured to universal coverage in just a few years, all while improving outcomes and keeping costs to just 6 percent of GDP. The US, by contrast, spends about 18 percent of GDP on health care.) 
 In 2009, a pre-Obamacare Harvard University study found that lack of health insurance was leading to roughly 45,000 preventable deaths annually in the U.S. and that uninsured Americans had a 40 percent higher chance of dying unnecessarily than Americans who had health insurance. 

 Medical bankruptcies were rampant, even among Americans who thought they had comprehensive insurance through their jobs. 

 Many self-employed find themselves uninsurable if they had a major preexisting condition, which could be anything from diabetes to asthma to high blood pressure.

Even Obama's Affordable Care Act of 2010 left 28.1 million in 2017 without medical cover.

Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will kick 13 million off their health insurance by 2027 and cause health insurance premiums to increase by 10 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office, encouraging deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.

last summer, the Commonwealth Fund released a report rating the quality of health care in 11 developed countries, including the U.S., France, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, the U.K. and Germany. According to the study, America had the highest health care costs and the worst outcomes, by farDavid Squires, president of the Commonwealth Fund, observed, “It doesn’t appear that people in the U.S. use more health care in general. We go to the doctor less often than people in other countries and get hospitalized less; so, it’s not like we are making greater use. But we are paying more for the things we do use.”

Brazil’s public health care system has managed to reduce infant mortality by half since it was established in 1988, while increasing life expectancy from 66 in 1990 to 74 in 2014. Even in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and other cities, Brazil’s ultra-poor have access to universal health care—unlike the 28.1 million Americans who remain uncovered, and live in constant fear of medical bankruptcy or unnecessary death.

In Africa Rwanda established a national health plan in 1999 and had insured 91 percent of its population by 2012. According to WHO, its life expectancy reached 66 in 2015—which is low by European standards but a vast improvement over the country's life expectancy of just 33 back in 1990. Incredibly, the average lifespan in parts of West Virginia isn't any higher—just 65.7 in 2015, per WHO. A recent study from the University of Washington reveals how much life expectancy varies across class and region in the U.S., from 81.4 for males and 85.0 for females in upscale Marin County, California compared to just 66.7 for males and 73.3 for females in Tunica County, Mississippi. Poor men in swaths of the American south aren't expected to live much longer than poor men in Botswana, 

In 2015, the average lifespan of someone living in the U.S. was 79.3 compared to 83.7 for Japan, 83.4 for Switzerland, 82.8 for Australia and Spain, 82.7 for Italy and Iceland, 82.5 for Israel, 82.4 for Sweden and France, 82.3 for South Korea, 82.2 for Canada, 81.9 for the Netherlands, 81.6 for New Zealand, 81.4 for the Republic of Ireland, 81.2 for the U.K., 81.7 for Malta, 81.1 for Belgium and Finland, 81.0 for Germany and Greece, 80.8 for Slovenia, 80.6 for Denmark and 80.5 for Cyprus. Several countries in Latin America have surpassed the U.S. in recent years, including Chile and Costa, whose average life expectancies were 80.5 and 79.6 respectively, according to WHO. In Cuba, a developing country with widespread poverty, the average life expectancy is 79.1. Meanwhile, Singapore's population is living to the ripe old age of 83.1.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/united-states-health-care-system-international-disgrace-and-its-only-getting-worse

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