America has the best health-care system

I work at least 50 hours a week..pay taxes..and still, I cant see a DR.? America health care is crap. I broke my arm and had to just "deal" with it. I havent been to the doctors in about 5 years because I cant afford insurance. Americas system is sad. I work way harder than most and Im still denied coverage

If Wood was a nurse and still doesn't understand the complex economic and as well as the care issues we face in American healthcare, then the rest of us are surely in trouble. This woman is merely a shill for the conservative, pseudo-patriotic and especially well-imagined "free market" priciples upon which this country, or any country for that matter, was founded on. There is no free market, dear. Perhpas for those with all the equity and cash there is, but not for the rest of us.

I agree that if measured by technological capacity it could be said to be the best.

In the other hand, if a household with a sixty thousand dollars income, that pays thirty thousand in health insurances a year is to be considered the best, than I must tell you that the american health system is the worst.

It is the best for the insurance companies. And they will do anything to raise it even more. Than, when you need the "service" you are paying for, you learn that your deductible will quadruple the cost.

Reform is needed and health is a right. We like to call us the "best", only that our representatives and law makers don't hear us.

Next election, remember it and vote out those who accept contributions from big business.

Our system of laissez-faire capitalism has run amok when it comes to health care. Congress has abrogated their regulatory authority and allowed 50 state legislatures to accept bribes to maintain the status quo for 60 years. This is also true for auto, property and liability insurance.

One reason we are uncompetitive as a nation is the high cost of insurance employers have to pay for health insurance and pensions.

The gulfcoast states have to pay a fortune for property insurance. When their homes are destroyed by tornadoes or hurricanes they are lucky if the get fifty percent of the value of their home to replace it.

The same corrupt state legislatures that regulate insurance also regulate public utilities that supply your electricity. Is it any wonder that so many Americans live from paycheck to paycheck and eat at McDonald's.

Yesterday, legislation was passed in the U.S. House that addresses the lack of competition in the health insurance market place. That legislation allows anti-trust legislation to apply to the health insurance industry. We should applaud the action of the House in taking a step to restore competition so that capitalism can work its magic.

Let me ask you something, Amelia. Who is going to control anti-trust practices of the government in regarding health care? Because if nobody will control what the govenment will do, what "fair" competition among government-private insurance are you talking about?

Alance

Your whole post sounds more than a proposal for health care "redistribution" rather than explaining a logic reason of why the U.S. system is the worse, as you mention. This health bill is going to cost us more than a 1 trillion dollars in the next 10 years. Who do you think is going to pay for that? Three times more than Canada, which spent 36 billion in the last 10 YEARS...

Do you call that affordable? I agree on something, though. We will keep on having the most expensive healthcare system in the worlk, and one of an inferior quality as well.

Complete junk. Why did the Post bother to include this "contribution"?

For being the wealthiest country in the world, we have the worst health care system imaginable. Millions of self-employed and small business owners can't afford health insurance for their own families. They can't afford to spend $1400 for a trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night.

Millions of others are insurance poor. They have high deductible coverage and are told in the event they need cancer surgery that their condition is pre-existing and they are not eligible. The cost of medical care here is often 3 or 4 times more expensive than other countries.

If you have decent insurance coverage from your employer, the medical establishment is going to send you for as many unnecessary tests as your insurance coverage permits.

The insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are your enemies. They are unregulated monsters costing us as a nation 18 percent of our GDP. Nations with universal health care provide adequate care for everyone for only 10 percent of their GDP.

The comment about "cutting edge" is right on. America goes to the knife much faster than anywhere else for proven therapy or lifestyle changes have little profit built in whereas invasive surgery or scans do. Read up on the % of surgeries that are not needed or the amount of radiation involved in a CAT scan (1 scan=1000 X-rays) and you will come to the conclusion, that America's sytem is a profit centre, not a health care system. The NYT did a series of article on this topic a few months ago and the following site is even more incisive. www.naturalnews.com/012291.html

My goodness. This is a whole lot of rah, rah and no substance.

We give up absolutely none of our aura of the superheroes of the world by looking at what is done in other countries and adapting their ideas to a US solution.

Here is food for thought from yesterday's Harold Meyerson column: "In more than 30 states, five or fewer health insurance companies control three-quarters of the market (in Alabama, one company controls 90 percent). And mergers among health insurers are at an all-time high this year, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Worse yet, more and more businesses are declining to offer health insurance to employees (60 percent offered benefits this year, down from 69 percent in 2000 and 63 percent last year, according to an annual Kaiser Family Foundation study). Increasingly, individuals will have to shop for insurance in markets that are steadily less competitive."

Yesterday, legislation was passed in the U.S. House that addresses the lack of competition in the health insurance market place. That legislation allows anti-trust legislation to apply to the health insurance industry. We should applaud the action of the House in taking a step to restore competition so that capitalism can work its magic.

Redbirdie, Yes, the "holy capitalism" of which you snidely refer is responsible for making this a great country. Without the lure of improving ourselves, many of us would not have been able to improve our lives by going to school and working ourselves into a vocation. Perhaps, it's time for you to visit a country like Cuba and see what that's like.
I realize you are apparently passionate about the uninsured. I think we can solve this problem within our present system. I, also, have never seen any of those uninsured turned away at any emergency room I have ever worked in. Medicaid is available and should be sought out by those who do not have any other way of qualifying for insurance. Perhaps your bitterness would lessen if you realized how much misinformation we are being fed about the numbers of the uninsured citizens in this country to say nothing about the illegals who do not have a God- given right to expect us to pay for their coverage. I realize people with your opinion have a right to disagree with me. That's the blessing of this free, capitalistic republic we live in; self-expression. Sue

Cristina, Thank you for your insightful response. Indeed, many people who live in this country are clueless as to how bad it could get if they embrace change for the sake of change. Politicians do not know about health care. A decision of this magnitude should be thoughtfully and judiciously considered instead of being based on politics alone.
Our system is not perfect. We need to improve it and cut out the festering fraud. It is still the best system in the world. You're right. Sue

Sue,

I absolutely agree with you. I have grown up abroad, and in my country of origin we have universal health care. You really, really, don't want to go there. Poor people really make lots of sacrificies to be able to pay for private care instead of landing in the public system.

I have received, in the USA, the best care. Not only is fast, but is modern, clean, and advanced. Treatment options are plenty in comparison to other parts of the world, where they do not invest in research, but benefit from research done in the U.S. Americans, I am sorry to say, have no clue when they talk about the "Great" Canadian systm or the "Great" English system. I cannot even imagine Americans pasively accepting 72 days to get a mammogram test done as you have to wait in Italy, or to wait two months to get a tumor removed from your breast, for example. What saddens me the most is that all those who said or promote systems abroad as 'better' than the one here in the US are the ones that then come here for treatment. Have you ever wonder why?

Americans don't really appreciate what they have.

Sincerely,

Tell those without health insurance that this is the best system in the world. You'll find that they vehemently disagree.

And while you are "ashamed and disappointed that a fine publication such as this one could even ask such a biased question," I am ashamed and disappointed that a fellow health care provider would so coldly turn her back on those in need. So long as health insurance companies are allowed to continue to operate and any attempts to overhaul the system are attacked as assaults on the Holy Religion of Capitalism, people will continue to needlessly suffer so others can reap profits.

Sue,

I appreciate your experience and observations from the field, however, I don't see any quantitative evidence in your arguments. I have no doubt that you and your colleagues are hardworking a caring people, but the numbers I have seen in our own professional journals and from international studies are not consistant with your assertions. I am willing to listen, but please back up your arguments with some empirical evidence.

The truth is, the emprical evidence suggests that our risk fragmented system has impeded innovation and treatment because we fail to systematically communicate and cooperate with each other on behalf of those we serve. Thus, the small gains we may have due to competition (which are doubtful because we do not approximate the conditions needed for competition to work effectively) are outweighed by the gains made by cooperation between providers.