President Obama had several opportunities during the televised congressional discussions on health care, to correct emphatic assertions by Republicans that we have the best health care in the world. He failed to do so.
True, we may be on the cutting edge in the innovative, highly technical procedures required by world leaders, but according to the statistics provided in the anything-but-liberal Economist’s yearly Pocket World in Figures, the United States is in 41st place among the almost two hundred countries of the world when it comes to life expectancy (two places behind Cuba, by the way).
When it comes to infant mortality, we are not among the lowest twenty-five, and we are in third place when it comes to obesity among men, eighth place among women. We are not among the eighteen countries that have the lowest number of population per doctor (Cuba comes in second, and among the industrialized countries on the list are Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands and Austria.) Obviously, some countries who have more doctors per head may not provide optimum care, such as Russia or Greece, but the fact that the United States spends roughly one and a half times as much as the members of the European Union should be broadcast more widely than it is.
Obama’s failure to rebut affirmations that we have the best health care in the world is not only a failure of honesty. It strengthens the position of those who believe that the main problem with our health care system is its cost. Low numbers in favor of major reform include those who consider single payer to be the only solution, and those who, when false affirmations are aloud to stand, say: “If our health care is ‘the best’, we could allow ourselves to spend less without putting the health of the population in danger, right?
Our health care is on the worst list globally. It is a shame that we have the best medical technology but our Doctors do not know, do not want to know but they do care how much they can get from you or from medical insurance and this is the truth of our medical economical disaster. I will give you a sable what happened to me. We was looking for a specialize Doctor so we can get some medical answer if possible for my episodes. The Doctor office requested from us to get all the records from the hospital wish was not so easy for us to do so but we had to do it. A week later w did went to the appointment we had and the front office ask us to pay up front the 20% no mater what was the visit. My lady did pay up front before we went to see the Doctor and as soon we went to his office we got the answer up front. Sorry, I cannot help you with your episodes. Well that was our visit and we went home. I did called my medical insurance and explain to them what happened with our appointment with this Doctor. Ques what happened a few weeks later. I got my monthly statement from my medical insurance and I did see that the bill from this Doctor was $1,000.00 even but my insurance did pay him only $93.00 because I did notify them before. It is a shame how our system works and how they care for us. This is a part of my event I facing quite often with our Doctors and Hospitals. Our rating was 34 in one global report I did came across and who knows how it is today. Better or worst.
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