[Mb-civic] Cubans have better medical care than Americans

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

"Cuba whose economy has been bankrupt for the last decade -
food shortages, drug shortages, chronic unemployment, etc. -- and which
annually spends a miserly $185 per person on health care, has better
infant and adult mortality rates than the US, and has a life expectancy
nearly equal to ours."

The Huffington Post - Apr 23, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood/cuba-has-better-medical-
c_b_
19664.html

CUBA HAS BETTER MEDICAL CARE THAN THE U.S.

Statistics don't lie.

by Blake Fleetwood

Figures from the World Health Organization clearly show that The United
States lags behind 36 other countries in overall health system performance
ranging from infant mortality, to adult mortality, to life expectancy.

20 countries in Europe and four countries in Asia have a better life
expectancy than the U.S. If you are a male between the ages of 15 and 59,
your chances of dying are higher in the U.S. (140 per thousand) than in
Canada, 95, Costa Rica 127, Chile 134, and Cuba, 138.

The U.S. Health system looks especially dysfunctional when you consider
how much money we spend per capita on healthcare -- $6,000 plus per year,
twice as much as any other country-- and how little we get for it.

Canada spends $2,163 and boasts a life expectancy of 79.8 years, two and a
half years longer than the US. Their infant mortality rate per thousand is
also better than ours, as is their adult mortality rate.

Switzerland spends about 11% of its Gross Domestic Product on universal
health care for all its citizens, while the U.S. (with 50 million
uninsured this year) spends 15% of GDP with embarrassing results.

One grand irony, Cuba whose economy has been bankrupt for the last decade
- food shortages, drug shortages, chronic unemployment, etc. -- and which
annually spends a miserly $185 per person on health care, has better
infant and adult mortality rates than the US, and has a life expectancy
nearly equal to ours.

Why has our vaunted free enterprise system - which has produced such great
benefits in delivery of most goods and services -- failed so completely
with regard to this most fundamental need?

Simple, buyers don't shop for health care. Sick people don't negotiate
with doctors or hospitals or drug companies. They don't care what it
costs; insurance or the government will pay. This vulnerability has been
exploited and hijacked by greedy doctors, drug companies, insurers,
personal injury lawyers, HMOs, and hospitals. About 50% of health care
funds never even get to doctors or hospitals -- which themselves run
bloated operations.

Maybe we have finally reached the "Tipping Point". Not because people are
needlessly dying, but because big business is being crippled by
astronomical health costs.

US companies -- with employer funded health plans -- are having a hard
time competing in world markets. General Motors spends more on worker
health care ($1,400 per vehicle) than they spend on steel for each car
they produce. "The three big auto makers are "HMOs on wheels" says 
Goldman
Sachs analyst Gary Lapidus.

Employer funded health insurance is a relic of the past according to the
growing clamor by big business. We don't want to pay for it any more and
the added costs make our products uncompetitive in world markets.

The new Massachusetts law mandating health insurance - just as the state
requires auto insurance - is a bold leap into an uncertain future, but it
is an ad hoc band-aid which hopefully will lead to something more.

The long-term answer is obvious. Adopt a single payer system like
Canada's. Not socialized medicine. Doctors would remain private. By
cutting out the bureaucracy, needless lawsuits, and curbing greed, the US
could save 50% of the monies now being squandered, more than enough to
cover the 50 million uninsured, according to a General Accounting Office
and Congressional Budget Office report.

Ironically, we already have a successful single-payer healthcare program.
Medicare, which covers people over 65, has an administrative and overhead
cost of just 2%. Compare this low figure with the $399 billion spent on
administrative middleman services in the free-market sector of health care
last year. The simple step of data sharing of medical records could save
$140 billion per year according too a recent Federal study.

Critics charge than a single payer system would lead to a rationing of
medicine and long waits. But we already ration medicine, not by need, or
efficacy of the treatment, but by how much money you have. If you are
rich, you can have all you want. If you are poor, unemployed, self
employed, sorry. 18,000 Americans die each year for lack of care according
to the Institute of Medicine.

The right says that single-payer systems have not been adequately tested.
But this is an obvious pretext by for-profit interest groups. Single-payer
systems have been worked for many decades in 20 countries around the
world.

The facts are clear: single-payer systems work and they save money. The
Germans, French, Australians, Swiss, and Canadians all benefit from
universal healthcare at less than half the cost that Americans pay for an
incomplete system. Our for-profit healthcare system is a gambling scheme
with the explicit goal of excluding the sick.

Good luck Massachusetts. Maybe your example, big business, and growing
outrage will goad the dithering federal government into action.

Someday, inevitably, America will join the civilized world and provide
universal care. It should be sooner rather than later.


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