The true source of high health insurance costs...

[Carrie]

Jenny, while much of the content, table-wise of that link is able to be cross referenced, there is no real reference to any other literature, nor is there any demonstration or documentation of the author's credentials. Also, all of his links are to his own websites, none to any government or nongovernmental organization, research facilities, think tanks, or news sources. The address isn't tied to any organization, academic or otherwise, so I worry about the content being a little misleading. All of his articles utilize facts and figures to express opinions that are not necessarily an accurate snapshot of American government or programs.

[Matt's Dad]

Population of France - 60,959,651
Population of the United States - 298,694,961

I don't buy into any of these studies that rank the US so far down on their healthcare standards.
Sorry, the US has 5 times the amount of people as France. You are comparing apples to oranges in terms of healthcare.


How come people from all over come to the US to receive medical treatment??
How come doctors from all over come to the US to practice medicine??

And just for the record, of a population near 300 million 85% of the people here in the US have healthcare.

[jennyb]

I think maybe people come from all over to practice medicine because doctors don't become millionaires in most countries, not sure how the population figures would work because obviously a larger population means much more money to play with, and with the US spending more per head than anyone else that should mean us citizens get more per head than anyone else, shouldn't it? Of course people come there for treatment, some of it is the best in the world. It's the people who live there who the reports are concerned with, just because a rich person from Korea can access (say) a USA bpi doctor doesn't mean a person in the US without insurance can access the same doctor, or in many cases, any bpi doctor at all, check the TBPI message boards for stories of the people who are left with nothing, not even adequate pain relief. Health systems are only partly judged on the quality of treatment for the fully insured, if life expectancy and neonatal health are still poor compared to other countries then clearly there's a problem with preventive medicine and fairness of the system.

Sorry Carrie, I chose that site out of laziness as it's got all of the figures in one place. As I said, the World Health Organisation site is a nightmare to navigate but all of those figures are there. Check it out or try Wikipedia on The US Health System, they have an excellent page and all the academic sources are cited there. A report from a professor at Rochester University explains how the rankings work better than I can- http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V63N1/point.html

This article is interesting too, http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology ... hcare.html

I am not trying to annoy you guys, I personally think these are some of the factors that explain the appalling obpi figures and poor obstetric performance. Thank God you also have some amazing and dedicated doctors to pick up the pieces.

[Ben's Dad]

Ok, last one. Finally, someone with executive powers has the guts to challenge the special interests!

Here is an editorial written by my governor, Eliot Spitzer, about his plans to fix NY's health care crisis.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03052007/po ... pitzer.htm

I hope he accomplishes his goal and gets New York headed in the right direction.

[Matt's Dad]

Yes, Mark Spitzer is right - the sky is falling.