Posted on 03/06/2011 8:53:44 AM PST by blam
Forget Medicare, THIS Is The Chart That Shows Why America Is Doomed
Joe Weisenthal
Mar. 6, 2011, 8:16 AM
If you look at the US fiscal situation, it's easy to see that Medicare is a looming black hole ready to swallow the entire economy. Reforming the entitlement seems necessary to prevent fiscal ruin.
But actually that's too narrow a way of looking at things. After all, the costs borne by Medicare are no more sustainable if they're shifted to private individuals. It's just the path is different.
The REAL problem is how expensive our healthcare system is compared to its benefits, at least relative to other countries.
This chart is from SocGen's Albert Edwards. As you can see, the US has the same life-expectancy of Chile at 7 times the cost.
Now, the root causes of this can be debated ad nauseum. We need to reform what we pay for. We need to lose weight. We need to end the doctor cartel, on and on you can go. But if you're looking for a problem THIS is it.
Solve it, and the Medicare crisis goes away.
Image: SocGen
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Thank the lawyers.
Bummer to see those socialized-medicine countries ahead of U.S.
In some spirit of fairness I’d like to know if Chile counts infant mortality the way we do.
Guess what, Weisenthal...that problem will be solved soon enough. You'll be hard pressed to find a doctor who specializes in clueless putz' soon enough with the shortages that are coming.
Import them from Chile.
Putz
Are we comparing apples to apples?
I’ve never been a big fan of using life expectancy as a measure against the cost of health care. Life expectancy is a single outcome composed of a whole slew of contributing variables.
So, where is Africa on the chart?
Ditto!!!!!
Life expectancy is probably more related to genes and lifestyle.
We have millions of obese sedentary individuals who do not watch their salt, fat and sugar intake even though they are genetically likely to develop diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. We have young inner city youths dragging down life expectancy with guns.
The best health care system in the world isn’t going to cure stupidity.
Haven't you heard? The coming economic collapse has officially been canceled. The U.S. economy is in full recovery mode. It has just been announced that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.9% in February. That was the third monthly decline in a row. 192,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. during February.
That was the fifth month in a row in which the U.S. economy has gained jobs. Corporate profits are way up. For the most recent month that numbers are available, sales of GM vehicles were up 49%, sales of Chrysler vehicles were up 13%, and sales of Ford vehicles were up 10%.
Nope, and neither is the most expensive education system.
Just a few years ago, I could see a neighborhood doctor in his office for about $35. He look at me, talk to me, take care of what I needed, and be concerned about me.
Now the same doctor works for a regional health care system. He sees me for about 5 minutes, orders all kinds of expensive tests I don’t need, and seems to be more interested in giving me whatever the system wants him to sell today and what he can bill the insurance company for, rather than what I need.
I tried 3 other doctors, and it’s the same thing. The regional has bought out all the private practices, and blocked the start of a local out-patient clinic.
There no “free market” because the big boys shut out any competion, and regulation is designed to prevent new practices from opening up, rather than improve care.
American medicine has grown into a great dis-economy of scale and the politicians don’t have the guts to take on the health care industry.
Thank the banksters for running up the price of tuitions and facilities. Thank the drug companies for sticking research costs to America. Thank the government for making bureaucrats out of health care providers.
I always have doubts about this international comparisons. None of them measure the degree to which lives are saved because care is available immediately when it is needed. Plus we are stuck with huge populations of people who come from backward countries or who live in a state of social anarchy, thanks to insane immigration and social welfare policies.
So does this cute little chart include back of pocket costs? The actual tax bill that makes medical care look cheap in socialized countries. Probably not. Meanwhile 78 is a long time.
My daughter is going to have ear tubes placed on Monday. The operation takes 30 minutes and she will stay in the hospital for 2 hours. The facility fee is $12,000. That doesn’t include the doctor or the anesthesiologist.
Just because Obamacare is not the solution does not mean that there is not a problem.
If the doc fails to order the exams and fails to diagnose one of these potentially lethal conditions, and the patient has an adverse outcome the doc (and his family) will suffer for it in many ways, for many years.
Understandible to me; order the tests and spread the cost around rather than takes society's (legal) responsibility solely on your own (and your family's) back.
Note: There are A LOT of headache, belly pain and shortness of breath visits. Also, all of the above also applies to other types of testing including laboratory.
The other big contributor is self-referral for above-described diagnostics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.