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Have you ever wondered where the United States ranks with other countries in the world for life expectancy? You might guess it would be in the top 10. Wrong! Top 20? Nope. Top 30? No way. Top 40? Not quite. For 2010, the United States barely makes it into the top fifty, at 49th place. Life expectancy in the United States is 78.24 years, while the longest life expectancy is in Monaco at 89.78 years.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
Looking at the infant mortality rate, we find that 44 other countries have a lower rate. The rate for the United States is 6.14%, while the lowest is in Monaco at 1.78%.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
In the United states, we spend more on health care per person than any other country in the world. As you can see from the stats above, it hasn't done us any good.
The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost? The U.S. has a fee-for-service system—paying medical providers piecemeal for appointments, surgery, and the like. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn’t reliably improve a patient’s health. Says Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, “More care does not necessarily mean better care.” —Michelle Andrews
http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/12/the-cost-of-care.html
To see the difference very clearly, take a look at this chart.
http://blogs.ngm.com/.a/6a00e0098226918833012876a6070f970c-800wi
Here is some more sobering information. This is from 2007, but it says a lot about the health care system we have had, and why change was so desperately needed.
35: Percentage of uninsured adults who reported that in the last year they needed care that they did not get; 47 percent reported that they postponed seeking care because of cost during the past year.
23: Percentage of families without insurance who report spending less on other basic needs such as food and heat in order to pay medical bills.
30: Percentage of sick Americans who have access to same-day care
45: Percentage of sick Britons who have access to same-day care.
1: Ranking of health care costs among reasons Americans file for bankruptcy.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/05/health_numbers.html
After looking at the above information, consider this. There are those who want to repeal Health Care reform, and keep what we had. Are they nuts?
