Hot Docs: Healthcare Costs Put U.S. Workers and Companies at Global Disadvantage
Today's selection of timely reports
Healthcare Costs Put U.S. Workers at Disadvantage: The costs and performance of America's healthcare system are putting workers and companies at a "significant disadvantage" in the global marketplace, according to a new study by the Business Roundtable. The association of CEOs, whose member companies provide healthcare plans for more than 35 million Americans, finds that compared with people in Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, Americans receive 23 percent less value from their healthcare system. When compared with emerging competitors like Brazil, India, and China, the United States receives 46 percent less value. The Business Roundtable Health Care Value Comparability Study also finds that for every dollar the United States spends on healthcare, its five leading competitors spend 63 cents, and the emerging competitors just 15 cents. The study also notes that "on the whole, our workforce is not as healthy" as that of either group of competitors.
Healthcare Journalism Shrinking: At a time when the federal government is poised to reform the nation's healthcare system, the number of reporters who cover healthcare is on the decline. A survey of healthcare journalists by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 94 percent believe financial pressures at organizations they work for is hurting the quality of healthcare reporting, 40 percent say the number of healthcare reporters where they work has declined, 88 percent think coverage overly favors short stories, 52 percent believe there is too much coverage of lifestyle health stories, and 11 percent say their organization had allowed advertisers to influence story selection or content. Drew Altman, president of the nonprofit foundation that studies health issues, says it's "critical that our country continues to produce the best possible health journalism during this important period."
Americans Optimistic About Future: Despite the current economic crisis and recession, Americans remain optimistic about the future. According to a poll conducted for the Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project, nearly 80 percent of Americans believe it is possible to improve their economic standing and are optimistic that the economic situation for their family will improve in years to come. African-Americans were the most optimistic, with 85 percent believing their economic situation will be better in 10 years, compared with 77 percent of Hispanics and 71 percent of whites. Whites were most pessimistic when asked about their children's chances of moving up the economic ladder, with 54 percent saying their children would have a harder time compared with 41 percent of Hispanics and 34 percent of African-Americans.
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Reader Comments
Healthcare Reform
Healthcare reforms requiring the purchase of insurance, and using existing cost bloated delivery systems are not addressing real world problems for users.
Health insurers, HMOs, for profit health care providers, health care regulators and legislators have destroyed the utility of our current health delivery systems for many Americans, just as Wall Street and Washington have destroyed our financial system.
“You talk about waiting for the economy to straighten out before dealing with health care. Health care is one of the main things destroying the economy!” comments ren in a New York Times blog on March 5, 2009 that sums up overwhelming citizen sentiment. .http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/white-house-health-care-summit/?apage=3#comments
A healthcare system is needed that provides users with the option of selecting free government owned and operated National Healthcare, based on the Veteran Administration model, that provides qualified Veterans with totally free care for all prescribed treatments and medications, totally transferable, with no precondition restrictions.
Government operating a National Healthcare Service based on the Veterans Administration model could deliver healthcare, to Americans choosing to use it, at a fraction of the cost per patient compared to existing systems.
The bottom line is every American, choosing National Healthcare, would then be cared for, free. No more insurance needed period.
Largest cost factor in Medicare: kidney dialysis
and it's growing year by year according to recent legislation. The solution was proposed back in 2002 by Dr. David Moskowitz of public health biotech GenoMed, Inc. (www.thelatestmedicaltreatment.com) and blatantly ignored by the National Institutes of Health and it's director, Dr. Agodoa. Big pharma makes big bucks from our bloated health care system and people with solution are being turned a deaf ear. Now is the time to transform our health care system into a vital, productive and cost effective system. Let's start by listening to people like Dr. Moskowitz who have viable alternative for 90% of type ii diabetes patients than to waste away within 3 years of starting treatment at the tune of $35 billion per year.
Medicare for All
In my thirty years of nursing, the biggest change has been from a non-profit community based health care system to a for-profit private based system. There are now more people sitting in the back office managing health care than out front providing the care. The result is American health care costs double and insures fewer. We now pay more to promote individual plans, products and medicines, sponsor lobbyists, review and deny claims, and pay multi-million dollars salaries, than we pay for providing health care. The result is an unaffordable, broken system. We need a single payer, Medicare for all plan, which would reduce all the promotional costs.
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