Comparing the UK and US on healthcare

[andrewducker]

Well, let’s compare the UK and US using OECD data (UK and USA):

- The UK has 2.5 physicians per 1000 people, 10 nurses per 1000, 2.6 acute care beds per 1000, a life of expectancy of 79.1 years, and an infant mortality rate of 4.8 per 1000.
- The US has 2.4 physicians per 1000, 10.6 nurses per 1000, 2.7 acute beds per 1000,life expectancy was 78.1 years, and an infant mortality rate of 6.7 per 1000.

Most people would say that the UK was marginally better than the US overall with the exception of infant mortality where it was considerably better. Why? Because infant mortality is heavily correlated with poverty and an unequal healthcare system- like the US has.

BUT the big difference? There was one stat that I left out. That is the cost of healthcare. For a healthcare system that is comparable but worse in significant ways, the US has to spend a whopping 16% of its GDP. We pay 8.4% of GDP.

From

Comments

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

I like the way the US anti-health-reform loons manage to claim that Obama's plans are evidence of both Nazi and socialist tendencies. But that they're now making explicit references to Hitler shows that they really are panicking about losing the argument.

[jccw.livejournal.com]

(sticks fingers in ears)

USA! USA! USA!

[blackmanxy.livejournal.com]

But! But! Government bureaucracy can't do anything right! The invisible hand of the market will fix everything! This is just communazi propaganda from socialist Eurabia!

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

Uh huh. Just look at how badly our Veterans Administration runs its 100% nationalized health care. And how incredibly poorly the US military runs its 100% nationalized health care system. Because boy oh boy are they really terrible.

And by "terrible" I mean really very good indeed. I was lucky enough to have access to USAF health services for my childhood and can say with some certainty that it didn't suck at all.

I think the only complaints I can levy are The Hilarious Instance of the Missing Lab Slips, wherein the hospital kept losing the blood test diagnosis telling the world I had diabetes. (This was due in large part to having just moved internationally, which is always chaos.) And they made up for it when they figured out what the problem was, I tell you what.

And then there was the fact that insulin syringes were ordered by getting the cheapest bid from contractors (good thing, explains why costs were controlled). But for a six year old kid, it did take some adjustment, since the type of syringe would change a lot. Thankfully I am a tool using chimp with a large cranial capacity, so we worked it out.

Oh dear... I am gonna quit it with the rambling.

My point is, efficient health care is not a matter of Yes We Can. It is a matter of Yes We Want. And if Americans don't Want it, then they should just own their douchery, call their representative, and move on. Because the obfuscating lying is really getting on my tits.

Also, andrewducker, from this post do I surmise that "libertarian" means "more socially and less economically libertarian?" Because this does not read like the right-wing-nuttery that is the "All Taxes Are Slavery and Here Have a Teabag, you Nazi/Socialist/Liberal/Babykilling Bleedingheart who hates good old fashioned football, Jesus, and apple pie" crowd.

(I am from the part of the USA whose congresswoman believes census-taking is an evil government plot, evolution is a lie, not all cultures are created equal and her culture is the best one, and we need a House Unamerican Activities Committee to investigate Unamericans, cause that's a brilliant new idea dontchaknow. So I do realize we have a pure, undistilled, high quality kind of wingnuttery up here in the northwoods. I may be lacking perspective.)

[blackmanxy.livejournal.com]

I'm unsure if my irony wasn't clear or if I just provided a good jumping-off point. I understand if it wasn't clear; this being the internet, there is someone out there who'll use the phrase "socialist Eurabia" without irony.

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

Oh no... I saw your sarcasm and raised you a bitterness.

My apologies for being unclear!

[blackmanxy.livejournal.com]

I just woke up, so I assume any lack of clarity rests squarely on my shoulders. :D

Bitterness and sarcasm do go well together though, don't they? It's like a delicious candy bar that you hate to have to eat.

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

Exactly. So wrong, and yet so right!

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

By the time health care deform limps out of the senate, undead, shambling, half rotted, it'll be nothing but a handout to the insurance companies.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Whose failure by design will then be used as evidence that 'socialised medicine' don't work.

[skington.livejournal.com]

Arguably, so was Social Security originally. Government initiatives are far harder to create than to kill; if at least some kind of universal health care is available, it can be extended in future years.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

But there has been active propaganda against social security for a while now. The same "conservatives" who plunder the fund for their wars then turn around and say there's nothing there, it's in a state of collapse. Bush II wanted to tie it into the stock market.

[jccw.livejournal.com]

Yes, and that worked out so well for him!

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

And a very effective curtailing of womens'access to reproductive health care. Don't forget that. Because right now, it looks like this bill may be the biggest setback in that area since Roe v. Wade.


My kidneys hurt every time I think about it.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Good point. I made sure to call my Rep., even though he's a staunch advocate of women's rights and health care reform, to let him know I opposed the Stupak amendment. He voted against the amendment, but for the bill.

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

On behalf of women all over the USA, and in particular from me whose rep is a wingnut who keeps getting skewered on the Daily Show, thanks.

[skington.livejournal.com]

I like how he blithely asserts that pushy middle-class customers of a completely rational and private health-insurance industry will gain a good deal for themselves, and that this will axiomatically end up with the poor and destitute ending up with exactly the same benefits. Even though all evidence of the existing private healthcare industry is that if one set of customers gets a good deal, other customers will get a comparatively worse deal to pay for it.

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

One for you rlist, I think:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8306032.stm

[andrewducker]

Cheers for that!