Posted on 10/24/2010 3:36:08 AM PDT by Scanian
There are reasonable people who question whether our health care system is, in fact, "broken," as opined by President Obama. (This is one of the few conclusions he makes with which I agree. Of course, ObamaCare is very clearly not the solution.)
Objective, evidence-based analysis of the U.S. health care system leads to the well-worn doctor joke: "I have good news and bad news." Every assertion below has "hard" scientific proof. What follows is fact, not unsubstantiated opinion.
First, the good news
Americans have better health care outcomes than most others: better survival rates for common cancers than Europeans, better preventative cancer screening than Canadians, better access to chronic disease treatments, greater and much faster access to new technologies, less waiting times for care than in either Great Britain or Canada, and higher patient satisfaction here than in most European "universal health care" countries.
By any measure you choose -- patents applied for, new drugs or procedures, Nobel prizes, and more -- the USA is the most medically innovative country on the planet.
American-trained providers are considered the best. The super-rich fly from all over the world to the USA for their medical care. They do not go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for the weather.
Now, the bad news
The "bad news" is financial difficulty, provider shortages, and outcomes.
The U.S. spends more per capita on health care ($4,631) than any other nation. Interestingly, eight countries have annual increases in national spending greater than ours. Until the recent U.S. real estate collapse, medical bills were the leading cause of personal bankruptcies.
Forty-five million American residents (13% of our population) have no health insurance. Interestingly, 24% are uninsured by choice: they qualify for government assistance programs but refuse to sign up. .
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Right. I sure do not have the answers. I do know that we are at the breaking point for the Monster we have created. I also know that Article 5 is probably our last chance to save ourselves from it. It beats food riots in the streets.
I’m with you. I think it is absolutely brilliant. Kudos.
That’s my same situation. I just got a thirty percent inmcrease after getting a twenty percent increase a few months ago. I am beyond livid.
Look at the people we have in Congress. Are those the kind of folks you would trust to rewrite the Constitution?
We elect the “they.” If we can’t win the battle over who the “they” are, we can’t win, period, in my opinion. The Constitutional Convention you picture would be populated by our current crop of politicians, which is a frightening idea.
The state legislatures will be in charge. Read Article 5. The Feds will have no say. Nobody really knows what is in the Constitution for our self defense against a runaway Federal Government. The Founders knew this would happen and gave us an out if it got too bad. Well if it is not bad enough for you yet give em a couple more years.
I am still waiting for someone to tell me how we can pay off over 200 trillion dollars of debt in the next 30 years when the rates go up to 7 or 10%.
Sadly it is time for the states to take action.
I’m not always with the doctors on the liability issue. I’ve seen awful doctors ruin lives.
Health care IS truly broken. The cause is mostly the federal government, which over the course of many years has broken it with a thousand cuts, for the sole purpose of putting in place its statist solution.
Just compare the practice of human medicine to veterinary medicine and the case for personal responsibility is clear.
Vets charge almost as much (or more) for shots and routine check ups. They get paid in cash and are not required to file pet insurance claims.
Pet owners don’t expect anyone else to pay for their pets’ medical care. They pay for what is needed to keep them healthy.
It’s a billion dollar industry!!!!
When and why did we begin to approach our own medical needs with a totally different mindset?
Some of us pay for more expensive insurance on our automobiles than our own bodies (which cannot be traded in)!
There are many legitimate lawsuits. If lawyers thought they might have to pay for filing a frivolous lawsuit, then they would be more selective. With less frivolous lawsuits, the legitimate ones increase in importance.
In 2007, 33.2 percent of all immigrants (legal and illegal) did not have health insurance compared to 12.7 percent of native-born Americans. (Table 1)
Immigrants account for 27.1 percent of all those without health insurance. Immigrants are 12.5 percent of the nations total population. (Figure 1)
There are 14.5 million immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) who lack health insurance. They account for 31.9 percent of the entire uninsured population. Immigrants and their children are 16.8 percent of the nations total population. (Figure 1)
In 2007, 47.6 percent of immigrants and their U.S.-born children were either uninsured or on Medicaid compared to 25 percent of natives and their children. (Figure 2)
Should have made sure that old geezers would still have doctors...oh, I forgot doctors cannot be conscripted to serve in the private sector.
OUST obama clone steve cohen
Charlotte Bergmann
http://www.youtube.com/user/CharlotteBergmann?feature=mhum#p/u/3/IFgFNlIq7RQ
If I waited until something broke before I fixed it I wouldn't be in the oil business very long. To keep all my wells running at they're peak production takes constant maintenance and a watchful eye. Keeping your oil levels where they're suppose to be, grease your bearings often and replace worn parts before you have a complete failure. The same could apply to health care business that has ignored the demands for pre-maintenance, ignored bad or substandard parts and has let the entire industry's production fall to levels that now need a costly and major rebuild.
So where do you start?
You replace old worn out parts, you service your wells to bring back production and cease certain methods that eat up your profits. Once you have everything running at peak production, you fire the SOB’s that let it fall into such a dilapidated state.
A little grease, oil and a vigilant eye goes a long way.
When I took over these wells our production was 13,500 barrels per month, the same wells now produce over 13,750 barrels per month by doing nothing more than a little preventative maintenance and constantly trying to reduce operating cost. I've since lowered production costs by 10% and raised production by 250 barrels per month.
So I guess I'll have to disagree with the old “If it ain't broke don't fix it” standard.
To keep all my wells running at they're peak production takes constant maintenance and a watchful eye.
..is preventative maintenance, not "fixing". You change the oil in your pickup (maintenance), but you don't tear down the engine (fixing) unnecessarily. There is a difference.
If the voters in this Republic had been practicing preventative maintenance, it wouldn't need fixing--and that holds at all levels. The decline hasn't happened overnight.
Let's start with the most overused and misunderstood issue, infant mortality. It is a slap in the face to those obstetricians, neonatologists, highly trained nurses, and technical staff to not recognize that the US has the most advanced capacity to save sick and premature infants of any in the world. If you, as a parent, were to have a premature child, there is no where in the world you'd be better off at than in the US.
Infant mortality is the number of live-born infants that die within the first year of life. In the US two-thirds of these unfortunate deaths occur within the first month after birth, and are primarily due to health problems of the infant or pregnancy, such as birth defects or premature birth. In many other countries these infants would never be counted as an infant mortality statistic because they wouldn't survive long enough to be consider a ‘live birth’ in those countries. Babies that we try to save are considered non-live births statistically in many countries.
Further, WHO statistics are skewed and it would be foolish to hang your hat on WHO generated statistics as a true measure of health care quality. They are a UN-like organization with an agenda.
Finally, with regards to this single issue (infant mortality), the incidence of premature and underweight births is a problem that reflects societal issues, not medical care. Teen pregnancy, drug use, alcohol, etc. are big contributors to the incidence of prematurity and underweight births. These are fundamental issues that the government has helped to create, not failures of medical care.
There's so much more to be said, but I'm already using too much bandwidth. Sorry.
True. It’s hard to balance though. With the average citizen who has a legitimate claim versus the average doctor and doctor’s insurance company, the citizen is at relatively more risk for the costs of the case. A 50,000 legal bill is small potato’s for an insurance company, and a life altering event for the average citizen. Also, the wealthy party tends to run up costs to increase the pressure on the poorer party to settle when legal fees will be awarded.
“If the voters in this Republic had been practicing preventative maintenance, it wouldn’t need fixing—”
I think we’re both on the same page.
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