[massgopguy]

“US Worst in Healthcare: Except for all the others”

[goodwithagun]

Recently, a Canadian woman came to the US to have her quadruplets. Why? There are NO Canadian hospitals that can handle multiple births over two or three. Also, you have the same chance of surviving cancer in England as you would in a third world country. What do these countries have in common? Anyone want to venture a guess?

[Piquaboy]

Someone better tell the Canucks.

[DuncanWaring]

Canada must then be even worse off.

[VRWCmember]

Here is the Yahoo newslink that actually matches your headline title: U.S. worst in health care

[Resolute Conservative]

Really, I think anyone who openly criticizes our system in light of another country should be denied medical help here and be forced to go outside the country. They will sing a different tune then.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Our system is in decline, only because it’s been incrementally socialized for decades.

But the Yahoo! headline is so ridiculously over-the-top, I suspect even the political novices will get a sense that they’re being propagandized here. I hope, anyway.

[mewzilla]

UK cancer survival rate lowest in Europe

Guess who's best?

[HD1200]

OK. Any country’s citizens whose health care is rated above the United States should be turned back at the border when they come here for their health care rather than stand in line in their own countries for questionable but “free” care.

[Dan Evans]

I wonder why so many people come to the US for health care?

[CholeraJoe]

Average waiting times for elective surgery:

Hip replacement - US 1 week; Canada 11 months; UK 2 years.
Gall bladder removal - US 1 week; Canada 9 months; UK 1 year.
Heart Bypass - US 10 days; Canada 1 year; UK 18 months.

The other countries regulate demand by waiting times. Many patients either go elsewhere, go private pay or die waiting.

[pgyanke]

My wife was in healthcare in the USAF in the early 1990s. At a Tricare meeting in DC, Ted Kennedy spoke. Here’s the money quote in answer to the question of when we will get universal healthcare... paraphrased... We are going to break the current system. Then we will be able to step in with a universal model solution.

[Tarpon]

And I assume the next story will be let the communist party run healthcare and it will improve.

[Vaquero]

Yes we are the worst for FREE SOCIALIST health care...

Which means we are the best in ACTUAL health care....

[KC_Conspirator]

This study was done by the Commonwealth Fund, and organization run by a former JIMMY CARTER OFFICIAL. Its so biased and full of lies that it makes me want to scream.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080108/lf_afp/ushealthfrancemortality_080108191353

[Antoninus]

The specific purpose of this report is an attempt to prepare people for socialized medicine. It's subjective in the extreme and an example of comparing apples to hand grenades.

In other words, it's horse-hockey.

[VRWCmember]

After listening to the story, the actual story said that the US had the worst rate of improvement (4% vs an average of 16% improvement) among industrial nations in reduction of "preventable" deaths. Without the context of actual numbers of preventable deaths and the improvement for each country, such statistics are meaningless at best, and more likely to be directly misleading.

As an example, consider the following hypothetical scenario in which we are measuring the "improvement" or reduction of some bad characteristic:
The beginning numbers are as follows:
US: 25 bad incidents
Austrailia: 100 bad incidents
Europe: 80 bad incidents
Japan: 60 bad incidents

After the "improvements" the numbers are as follows:
US: 24 bad incidents (only a 4% improvement)
Austrailia: 80 bad incidents (a whopping 20% improvement)
Europe: 70 bad incidents (a 12% improvement)
Japan: 50 bad incidents (a 16% improvement)

Thus, the US only had a 4% reduction in these bad incidents compared to an average of 16% improvement for the other countries studied, so the US is the "worst" even though its actual rate of the bad incidents is less than half of that of the next closest country, and less than a third of that of the country that showed the greatest improvement.

I am not suggesting that these are the actual numbers or ratios for the preventable deaths per capita or whatever measure is used for the various countries. I am pointing out how a particular measure can be highlighted in a research study to distort reality. This news story takes a statistic but fails to provide any context to substantiate the conclusion that the statistic is used to support.

[truemiester]

The ultimate in socialized Medicine is Holland.

If you are over 60 and go to a Dutch hospital you chances of leaving alive are very low. Euthanasia is practiced with extreme prejudice.

[Dan Evans]

European medical “ethicists” encourage suicide and euthanasia because, under socialized medicine, the patient is a liability rather than a customer. It costs money to care for people and so one way to eliminate costs is to eliminate the patient. The last thing in the world you want to be is a liability to the state.

Under free-market health care, the more patients the more revenue for the doctors.

[moonman]

Interesting post, thanks. Most interesting is the differences of each nation in success treatment ratios between female & male. Other than the USA, it seems men are least likely to survive treatment then women. I wonder why that is?