America's health care albatross

America's health care system is notoriously the world's costliest. Not to worry, say the industry's lobbyists; it's also the world's best. That's not necessarily so. A recent six-nation survey found significant deficiencies in how American patients with significant illnesses perceive they are treated compared to equivalently sick adults in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Germany. Although none of the six came out very well, one inescapable conclusion is that Americans aren't getting their money's worth. Far from it.

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Consider:

The United States fared worst in the percentage of patients - 34 - reporting errors in treatment, medication or laboratory procedures. This compared to 30 percent in Canada and 22 percent in Britain, which has a fully socialized national system.

The United States and Canada stood out from the others, with Canada highest, in the percentage of patients (23 percent in the United States, 36 percent north of the border) who had to wait six days or longer to see a doctor. Unlike Canada, the United States claims not to ration care.

Americans were much more likely than anyone else to skip seeing a doctor or to not fill a prescription because of cost. Here, 33 percent said they did not see a doctor when sick compared to only 7 percent in Canada and 4 percent in Britain.

"Despite these high rates of care forgone," the authors noted, "one-third of U.S. patients spent more than $1,000 out of pocket in the past year, a level rare in the other countries."


http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/19/Opinion/America_s_health_care.shtml

American health care is the best in the world if you can pay the ticket, and increasingly, people can't. They lose their employer supplied health care and the insurance companies won't take them unless they can prove that they are in perfect health. Pre-existing condition? Prepare to be permitted to die.

The legal system is the same way. Read something today about how no defendant who has ever been able to afford good legal representation has ever been executed.