Editorial
Charleston Gazette
November 18, 2008
America’s for-profit medical system is the world’s most expensive. For people with good insurance, it provides high-quality care. But 45 million “working poor” Americans – and many among the 1.2 million who lost their jobs so far this year – have no coverage. They must seek charity care or do without. That’s shameful.
America’s for-profit medical system is the world’s most expensive. For people with good insurance, it provides high-quality care. But 45 million “working poor” Americans – and many among the 1.2 million who lost their jobs so far this year – have no coverage. They must seek charity care or do without. That’s shameful.
Every other advanced democracy has universal health insurance for all citizens, suppressing costs and removing a heavy burden from employers. It’s disgraceful that America cannot do as well as other countries. Incoming President Barack Obama must push with deliberate speed to create all-encompassing U.S. coverage.
Meanwhile, it’s disturbing that many people overseas enjoy better health than Americans do, even though their countries have lower medical expense. In an editorial titled “Tied with Thailand,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said:
“Roughly seven of every 1,000 babies born in the United States die before their first birthday. That puts America on a par with the rates in Serbia and Lithuania. In a ranking of countries’ infant mortality rates, with number one being the best, the United States is tied with Thailand in 29th place. We rank slightly lower than Poland, Hungary, Croatia and South Korea. Our rate is more than twice as bad as the rates in Japan, Sweden, Cyprus and Italy, and three times worse than Iceland’s.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say America is substandard in various other health measures as well. For example, Americans have a “healthy life expectancy” – the number of years one lives before ailments set in – of 69 years. “That’s about the same as residents of Slovenia and Portugal, two fewer years than the British, three fewer years than the French and six fewer years than the Japanese,” the Post-Dispatch noted, adding:
“Yet we spend about twice as much on care as the British, French or Japanese. At least $1,000 of our health care spending per person, on average, pays for paperwork: administrative expenses. Unlike Americans, every citizen in Britain, France, Japan and every other developed country has government-paid health care.”
Why does America’s system cost twice as much, yet result in poorer health? This situation is outrageous. The cheapest, best, national insurance format is a Canada-style “single-payer” operation run by the government. We hope that President Obama and the new Democrat-dominated Congress move America swiftly toward that goal.
