Our national disgrace: US healthcare

From John Curry, May 15, 2007

Subject: What a disgrace! U.S. Healthcare

The U.S. Flag upside down? What a disgrace.... yet, an equal disgrace can be found in the article below comparing U.S. healthcare quality to that of five other "industrialized" countries. The article DOESN'T touch on the cause of our last place finish.... so, I will. The common denominator of the reasons for our last place finish is a five letter word - GREED!

Greed by the pharmaceutical manufacturers who use our tax monies through the National Institutes of Health to develop their medicines in our public universities - medicines which are then shipped to other countries of the world and sold at a far smaller price than to the people who assisted in paying for the development of these miracle drugs....our very own citizens. They then find it in their best interest to buy-off any other pharmaceutical company shortly before their patent runs out on a best-seller Rx so that the drug won't find its way to market as a more affordable generic manufactured by another pharmaceutical company. What a great way to make some bucks....get paid to not manufacture a product!

Greed by the pharmacy benefits managers who backdate stock options of their CEO's at investors' expense, manipulate the "average wholesale price (AWP)," receive kickbacks from the pharmaceutical manufacturers without passing these kickbacks on, short the pill counts in patients' orders, switch prescriptions without the consent of the patients, and then get slapped on the wrist with out-of-court settlements that they factor in as just the cost of doing business. They can practice much of this (minus the sunshine in state sunshine laws) under guise and blessing of a concept in federal law known as "trade secrets." A quick visit back in history to the recent Ohio STRS settlement with a PBM in a Cincinnati court room should leave no doubt about some of these practices - kinda' close to home, huh?

Greed by the U.S. insurance industry whose "administrative fees" sometimes exceed 20% of the monies on the paperwork they shuffle for the companies and organizations (like state retirement systems) who pay them to do their creative bookkeeping. They supplement this by going out of their way finding reasons to weasel-out of paying medical claims knowing that the elderly and infirmed will not have the means or the will to contest the refusals to pay these very same claims.

Greed by many hospitals in this country who don't even blink an eye when they charge two dollars for an aspirin while at the same time fight to hold on to their "non-profit" status. Meanwhile, they find it in their best interest to charge double and triple the going hospitalization rate to those in our country who cannot afford health care insurance.

Greed to the medical suppliers who profiteer at the expense of those who badly need their products while at the same time making a sport of overbilling Medicare and risking a slap on the wrist.

The U.S. also has the lowest rate of incarceration of those unscrupulous executives of the above entities who are finally caught with their hands in the cookie jar....and so, they continue to ply their trade with almost unlimited immunity from our system of justice.

One thing we in the U.S. definitely can brag about.... we have some of the best politicians that corporate healthcare money can buy! Many of them return the campaign donation favors to the healthcare industry each and every time they show to vote in the U.S. House and Senate. This disgrace could be changed with the concept of universal healthcare but.... it would mean a few less BMW's in the garages of those who administer our healthcare.... wouldn't it?

John

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U.S. healthcare expensive, inefficient: report

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

Tue May 15, 2007

Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada all provide better care for less money, the Commonwealth Fund report found.

"The U.S. health care system ranks last compared with five other nations on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes," the non-profit group which studies health care issues said in a statement.

Canada rates second worst out of the five overall. Germany scored highest, followed by Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

"The United States is not getting value for the money that is spent on health care," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis said in a telephone interview.

The group has consistently found that the United States, the only one of the six nations that does not provide universal health care, scores more poorly than the others on many measures of health care.

Congress, President George W. Bush, many employers and insurers have all agreed in recent months to overhaul the U.S. health care system -- an uncoordinated conglomeration of employer-funded care, private health insurance and government programs.

The current system leaves about 45 million people with no insurance at all, according to U.S. government estimates from 2005, and many studies have shown most of these people do not receive preventive services that not only keep them healthier, but reduce long-term costs.

Davis said the fund's researchers looked at hard data for the report.

"It is pretty indisputable that we spend twice what other countries spend on average," she said.

Per capita health spending in the United States in 2004 was $6,102, twice that of Germany, which spent $3,005. Canada spent $3,165, New Zealand $2,083 and Australia $2,876, while Britain spent $2,546 per person.

KEY MEASURES

"We focus primarily on measures that are sensitive to medical care making a difference -- infant mortality and healthy lives at age 60," Davis said. "Those are pretty key measures, like how long you live and whether you are going to die before age 75."

Measures of other aspects of care such as cataract surgery or hip replacements is harder to come by, she said.

They also looked at convenience and again found the United States lacking -- with a few exceptions.

"We include measures such as waiting more than four months for elective, non-emergency surgery. The United States doesn't do as well as Germany but it does a lot better than the other countries on waiting time for surgery," Davis said.

"We looked at the time it takes to get in to see your own doctor ... (or) once you go to the emergency room do you sit there for more than two hours, and truthfully, we don't do well on those measures," Davis said.

According to the report, 61 percent of U.S. patients said it was somewhat or very difficult to get care on nights or weekends, compared with 25 percent to 59 percent in other countries.

"The area where the U.S. health care system performs best is preventive care, an area that has been monitored closely for over a decade by managed care plans," the report reads.

The United States had the fewest patients -- 84 percent -- reporting that they have a regular doctor.

And U.S. doctors are the least wired, with the lowest percentage using electronic medical records or receiving electronic updates on recommended treatments.