Surprised? Nope.

[mandysee_mandydo]

Surprise, surprise. A recent study found the US ranked dead last among industrialized nations in health care despite all the money we spend on it. The measure for this was the number of preventable deaths. One of the biggest (but certainly not the only) factors was the high number of uninsured Americans. Canada and Australia were among the highest ranking. I really don't want to hear anyone complaining the Canada health care is so much worse than American health care because the government provides health care. At least according to this study, that just isn't the case. I'm wondering if there are other similar studies available that show the same thing...

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

Comments

[zeppelinmage.livejournal.com]

There's a trade-off for such great gov't funded healthcare... taxes.

Europe's income tax is up near the 50% margin because of it, for an example. We top out around 30%.

I don't know about what kind of income tax Australia or Canada have, so I really can't argue against/for them. :)

[srturtle.livejournal.com]

If taxes are that much of an issue, than let me just say that I'd rather have the heavy taxes that are paid and end of story than the massive debt that sits around, gathers interest and prevents me from getting credit I need to get other things.

Avoiding taxes comes with a price, too. ;)

[zeppelinmage.livejournal.com]

Outstanding medical bills don't affect your credit. ;) And they can't charge you interest.

[quantumswordsmn.livejournal.com]

While that is true for the medical bills themselves, it doesn't help when you get behind in other bills because of medical treatment (paying for prescriptions instead of your phone bill for instance).

[painted-wolf.livejournal.com]

There is nothing so uniquely frustrating as having to decide between paying a regular bill and seeing a physician.

I never thought I'd think of having surgery as a financial mistake.

[srturtle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well in that case it was also a matter of the doctor being a lying bastard. It's one thing to have a $1,300.00 that one can't afford. It's another to get slapped with a $1,300.00 medical bill because the eye surgery was billed as $1,000.00 when the doctor talked us into it by saying it was only a $300.00 surgery. Ummm... what?