Americans pay 30% more for health care...

[The Lone Liberal]

...than any other industrialized country. I can tell you that we are not receiving 30% better health care. The third leading cause of death in the U.S. is the health care we receive. You are more likely to die because of a hospital error or nosocomial incident than you are to die from a car accident, cancer or heart disease. The U.S. has the highest incident of infant mortality than does any other industrialized country.

The health care system is broken and we had better fix it or get ready to return to the days of Theodoric of York.

[sadiesworld]

1. Moreover, health care needs to be severed from employment.

[The Lone Liberal]

2. Gompers said that many years ago.

Could never figure out why, that is until just lately. You are correct it needs to be taken out of the terms of employment.

[4morewars]

3. And of that money...

24% of every health care dollar goes to an insurance company !! The Pharmaceutical industry spends up to 50% of their vast income on advertising !! Anyone else see a pattern here ?

[underpants]

4. There are as many people do paperwork as there are Dr.s and nurses

ABC did a whole week on health care a few months ago and that was surprising to me. There is a very real nursing crisis going on in this country.

The "privatization" thing doesn't work either. 15% of HMO's expenses is overheard, paperwork (billing etc). 3% of MEDICAID's expenses are overhead.

[muffin_man]

5. Agree healthcare is currently junk.

But your cause of death and infant mortality is way off! I could not belive we were that bad off so I had to check it out.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm

http://www.geographyiq.com/ranking/ranking_Infant_Mortality_Rate_aall.htm

[The Lone Liberal]

8. A quick review of stats and information available.

The new Commonwealth Fund study suggests that the 1999 Institute of Medicine report, which estimated that there are 44,000 to 98,000 deaths annually due to medical errors, may be the tip of the iceberg in determining the full extent of injuries from medical errors.
- The Commonwealth Fund, 2002

http://www.npsf.org/html/StandUp/about_medical_errors.html

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90,000 people die each year from hospital-acquired infections. That's more than from auto accidents and homicides combined

https://secure2.convio.net/cu/site/Advocacy?id=121&page=UserAction&JServSessionIdr009=d5gdlulso2.app14b

The nation's infant mortality rate in 2002 was 7.0 per 1,000 births. That's up from 6.8 in 2001 and the first rise since 1958.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/health/7934560.htm

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. I know so many hard-working people who cannot afford health care

and need it badly.

Plus, my mother once nearly died of a nosocomial incident following gall bladder surgery.

[Wapsie B]

7. To paraphrase an old saying,

"The healthcare system here can bury its mistakes."

[upu8]

9. For-profit health care is a parasite on our system

The profit motive and health care should never be connected at the corporate level. Instead of the "un-elected government bureaucrats" making decisions for you, we get un-elected corporate bean counters making those decisions based, not on what is best for the patient, but what yields the best bottom line for the CEO and shareholders.

<I>Private insurers take, on average, 13% of premium dollars for overhead and profit. Overhead/profits are even higher, about 30%, in big managed care plans like U.S. Healthcare. In contrast, overhead consumes less than 2% of funds in the fee-for-service Medicare program, and less than 1% in Canada’s program.</I>
(from http://www.pnhp.org/facts/why_the_us_needs_a_single_payer_health_system.php )

Despite the above, the American people are constantly propagandized about "the US has the best medical system in the world". Having worked inside that system my entire life, I can say with certainty--the US system is collapsing and it only works well for those with money and the very best insurance that lots of money can buy.
If Canada has such a crappy system, why do the Canadians prefer their system overwhelmingly in survey after survey? Single-payer systems are not perfect, but what we have in the US now IS health care rationing--rationing, that is, by ability to pay.

[Mairead]

10. How many of you voted for DK?

I voted for him, which means I voted for non-profit healthcare (and a host of other goodies!)