US still has the worst, most expensive health care of any high-income country

Interestingly, the US ranks around 40th for life expectancy at birth and near last among advanced industrialized countries. On the other had we rank near the top for age adjusted life expectancy at age 65. The big difference is that 97% to 98% of Americans over the age of 65 are covered by Medicare.

 

No doubt you've called out both sides at times, never said otherwise. However your post that I referenced was one sided and you know it. You made it about liberal posters.
Good to see your clarified in a later post.

 

Fair enough. I try (failing sometimes) to address posts directly. I get that sometimes that makes me seem one sided, especially with most here know my leanings.

 

So 60 years of limited healthcare and suddenly at 65 we get nationalized care and then that ups the life span, after all the years of neglect, damage and lack of care?
Seems a bit fishy.

I will ask are the infant mortality rates calculated with the same metrics? I ask because I read a paper some years ago calling into to question that measure as not all countries start counting their infants in their numbers unless they reach a certain age or if they were premature they don’t get included until the reach 1 year of age. Wheee as the US counts all live births. Even the the 24 week preemies

 

There is no doubt our healthcare system is broken. Unfortunately people want to focus on government as how to fix it.

Reality is that freedom creates a Catch 22. But we can beat that reality. Unfortunately fascism has infiltrated and it is an uphill battle.

It is very frustrating as one who is working to push integrative dental medicine. But we have trained people to treat the event. Instead of trying to prevent the event.

 

You want an answer for infant mortality…exactly what you questioned. And the reality we are an obese nation.

 

Trouble is the information on how to prevent many things is out there. Has been for decades, people like the quick easy fix.
Ignore the leaking roof for a decade and wonder why the ceiling eventually collapses.

 

I’m making the point that all these rankings aren’t based on equal data sets.

 

This is a reflection of our values, or should I say conservative/Republican values.

Profit and wealth accumulation at the expense of American’s quality of life.

We have sick care, not Heath care..

 

Yep. Though I do think there is also a training issue is some areas. But you are correct in that the overall information is there.

We are about to let a hygienist go that we hired basically out of school. They have shown no growth and will to get better. Do they do a clinically acceptable job? Sure. But we are not looking to provide quick and acceptable at our practice. It needs to be above and beyond. We don’t do 1 hour hygiene appointments to finish in a half hour. If we wanted that kind of practice we would have two hygiene appointments in an hour or even one in 40/45 minutes.

 

Americans clamoring for more affordable pathways to services that may kill them ...

 

Yeah pubs are the only ones who own for profit healthcare stocks, they are the only ones who work in for profit healthcare system…

Come on.

 

This is a reflection of those that think they should determine the value of one’s service. Or should I say democrat/Liberal values.

And honestly it is why we treat the events and have lacked in training detectives to diagnose and prevent the events better.

 

The U.S. actually has some of the best health care in the world. We have poor medical outcomes because people refuse to exercise, eat a proper diet, or listen to the doctor's advice ("I heard about a horse pill on the internet!"). The U.S. has some of the best access to medical technology with short wait times to get tests and surgeries performed compared to most other countries. Training of doctors and nurses is probably as good or better than most other countries.

We do pay more per capita than any other country, but there are reasons for that. For one, we have an extremely convoluted payment system where the doctor often can't tell you what the cost is until after you have had the procedure. We have in-network, out-of-network, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare plans, consumer plans, supplemental plans, etc. No hospital in the U.S. publishes the costs for their procedures, or makes any kind of effort to justify what they charge. If Congress wanted to reduce health care costs, they would demand that hospitals and doctors maintain a price list for all common procedures on the internet.

We also have society more inclined to initiate a lawsuit if a patient doesn't like the outcome, and we have the illusion that taking money (like, millions of dollars) away from the hospital will improve health care. Punish the hospital, and they will respond by demanding better health care (not by raising fees or laying off nurses, which is what they actually do). In many cases, the medical problem was something unusual about the patient, not poor performance by the doctor. But the lawyers need to get paid, so there needs to be a lawsuit. The mere threat of a lawsuit causes doctors to practice "defensive medicine", whereby any and all tests are ordered, just in the unlikely case that the patient could develop some issue requiring a lawsuit.

The U.S. has also traditionally done a piss-poor job of educating children on health care issues. The majority of parents are somewhat to extremely negligent in controlling sugar and salt intake for their children, and requiring that they get exercise (instead of video game entertainment and television). If it shuts them up, let them have it. Teachers and bus drivers hand out candy routinely if the children behave.

 

Nice job on this thread. Many good points.

Michelle Obama actually had this country’s biggest issue pegged and that was nutrition. She was demonized by the same jokers on here complaining about fat kids.

 

She had the right general idea. But implementing it is a different story. And to be fair. I am not sure it could be implemented to work by anyone.

 

Nutrition is not the country’s biggest issue.

It’s not even the biggest health issue.

 

Health care went fascist in 2020.

 

Many folks would be surprised to know that such "staples" as Mountain Dew, Freska, Ritz crackers, Honey Bunches of Oats, Frosted flakes, Little Debbie swiss rolls and many others are flat out banned in many comparable nations.

 

Who knew that Little Debbie was a mass-murderess ?