By many tangible measures, the U.S. health care system isn't much to brag about. For example, the World Health Organization reported that in 2000 the U.S. ranked 24th in the world in "healthy life expectancy."

"Basically, you die earlier and spend more time disabled if you’re an American rather than a member of most other advanced countries," said Christopher Murray (M.D., Ph.D.), Director of WHO's Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy.

In life expectancy, infant mortality, and number of practicing physicians per capita, the U.S. long has ranked near the bottom among the 30 or so wealthiest industrialized nations. And this is in spite of the fact that we spend nearly twice as much per capita on health care as nations that get much better results than we do. We don't even have as many hospital beds per capita as most other industrialized nations.

But worry no more, children. I learned yesterday that "US Health Care Saves More Lives Than Socialized Medicine"! Keep reading to learn more!

I learned about the triumph of the U.S. health care system from rightie blogger Captain Ed , who wrote,
Captain Ed wrote:According to the document linked by Captain Ed, "The proportion of colorectal cancer patients with access to the drug Avastin was 10 times higher in the US than it was in Europe, with the UK having a lower uptake than the European average." In other words, if you are a colorectal cancer patient lucky enough to have health insurance and get diagnostic tests in time, you are far better off in the U.S. than anywhere else.

What more do you need to know? That proves the U.S. has The Best Health Care in the World™, right? ...

BY JULIE FORSTER
Pioneer Press

William McGuire, who built a fortune guiding the meteoric rise of UnitedHealth Group, is leaving the company after an independent review found evidence that millions of stock options had been backdated.

Stephen Hemsley, the company's No. 2 executive, will replace McGuire as CEO on or before Dec. 1, the company said. Richard Burke, a former top company executive and director since 1977, was named chairman.

The overhaul announced Sunday includes resignations of the company's general counsel and a board member who played a direct role in compensation decisions. It calls for major changes in the structure of its board of directors and creates a high-ranking job to monitor ethics.

More changes could be coming: Hemsley has been ordered to review the conduct of senior executives in key areas of the company and recommend further action. The company will learn today whether its changes fly with investors when trading opens on Wall Street.

(more)

Emergency rooms are full of people who abuse the system and dont need to be in an Emergency room at all

Introduce a $5, $10, $20 fee when you come into emergency and the Triage nurse / resident doctor will then decide if you fit the criteria for being in need of "emergency care"

Another suggested approach has been establishing more community health centers, which would be run relatively inexpensively by staffing them with public health nurses. These would be available for people with problems of the "elbow itches, tummy aches, my baby has a fever" variety. Some already exist, and they do quite well.

This option saves money by reducing ER usage, and also by introducing an opportunity for preventative health care. It is also a more attractive option for consumers, who would not be shuffled to the back of the line as more urgent cases are dealt with, and can develop a relationship with their health care providers.

User fees are also an option. However, aside from people who can't be bothered to wait for an appointment (and some are like this), people more likely to consume ER services also include the following; single mothers with young children, people with no family doctor, due to being transient, newly immigrated, etc. For these people, user fees are not a disinsentive for ER use, but an unavoidable barrier to access for medical care. Although $5 seems like a nominal fee, it is significant for people in these situations.

One simple way Canadians could easily help their system out is by user fees.

Emergency rooms are full of people who abuse the system and dont need to be in an Emergency room at all

My elbow itches
I have had a tummy ache for two weeks now
I have a bad cough for weeks now
What is this bump on my knee?

These are the kind of people that could easily make appointments to see their doctor but dont want to because they (to put it bluntly) are lazy. What they dont understand is that this is a huge resource pig that takes nurses and staff away from the really sick.

Introduce a $5, $10, $20 fee when you come into emergency and the Triage nurse / resident doctor will then decide if you fit the criteria for being in need of "emergency care"

Combine this with percentage based Two-Tiered system (where nurses / doctors can work a percentage of time in both the public and private sectors - based on seniority and specialty)

These two additions to the Canadian healthcare system would significantly change the way our money is spent in the Healthcare system and how the people need to take more responsibility for it.

One simple way Canadians could easily help their system out is by user fees.

Emergency rooms are full of people who abuse the system and dont need to be in an Emergency room at all

My elbow itches
I have had a tummy ache for two weeks now
I have a bad cough for weeks now
What is this bump on my knee?

These are the kind of people that could easily make appointments to see their doctor but dont want to because they (to put it bluntly) are lazy. What they dont understand is that this is a huge resource pig that takes nurses and staff away from the really sick.

Introduce a $5, $10, $20 fee when you come into emergency and the Triage nurse / resident doctor will then decide if you fit the criteria for being in need of "emergency care"

Combine this with percentage based Two-Tiered system (where nurses / doctors can work a percentage of time in both the public and private sectors - based on seniority and specialty)

These two additions to the Canadian healthcare system would significantly change the way our money is spent in the Healthcare system and how the people need to take more responsibility for it.

President Bush, Meet Lorraine
by Barbara Ehrenreich

Here’s the news that rocked my little world this month: We got a message that a family friend, let’s call her Lorraine, who was in an ICU, barely able to breathe on her own. In the last few weeks, there’d been some mumblings about “not feeling a hundred percent,” but no hint of anything seriously wrong. The diagnosis came back in a couple of days: fourth-stage breast cancer, which has spread to a number of other organs, including her lungs. If you know anything at all about breast cancer “staging,” you know there is no fifth stage.

Lorraine has no health insurance. We didn’t know that. In fact, we’d been content to believe that her consulting business was going as well as she said it was. In her late forties now, she’s a former accountant who never could find another decent job—also a news junkie, an avid reader, and an energetic volunteer in a number of worthy causes. But it turns out she’s been struggling with the cell phone bill and the rent. A few weeks ago, unbeknownst to us, she’d moved out of her apartment and into a free room offered by one of the nonprofits she volunteers for. The cost of a mammogram—well over $100—must have been out of reach.

President Bush, in his State of the Union address, said we should each have a “catastrophic” health insurance policy for the big ticket items like breast cancer, plus a tax-deductible savings account for the little things, like mammograms. If we have to take “personal responsibility” for our doctor visits and routine care we’ll be thrifty about it—or so the thinking goes—and the nation’s medical expenditures will stop spiking like an Ebola fever.

It’s an old idea, going back at least to the Clintons, that the problem with the American health system is that we, the consumers, just consume too much. Make us mindful of the costs by raising co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs, and we’ll stop indulging in blood workups, MRIs, prostate exams, and all those other fun things.
...

I spend almost $2500 per month on health insurance for my family and my employees. Health insurance cost for my business went up 30% from last year to this year. Outrageous!!!

When I ran for State Representative, one of my campaign themes was that instead of merely trying to figure out how to insure everyone, we should be looking at reducing the cost of health care. It is simple to realize that if you attack the causes of these terrible increases and make health care more affordable, more people could afford to be insured, whether the government or the individual or the employer pays for it.

Here in Massachusetts, the Republican Governor (Mitt Romney, coming to a Presidential Primary state near you soon!)and the Democrat legislature are actually working on the same goal to bring health care coverage to everyone in the state. However, even though they are united across party lines to get this done, no one knows how to pay for it. That is why I was advocating towards addressing the costs of health insurance as a primary goal.

My voice on this issue was lost in the fray, as was my candidacy, I'm afraid. Still no deal on health care, I might add.

... It is simple to realize that if you attack the causes of these terrible increases and make health care more affordable, more people could afford to be insured, whether the government or the individual or the employer pays for it.
...

I think I'm hearing the Angelic Choir!

The first step is admitting there's a problem, Mugro.

Finally, I am on the same side as Richard Prins and Michael Moore. Yes, I said it.

The American health care industry is a big fat pig.

Fire away Michael (and Richard)!!!!

Finally, I am on the same side as Richard Prins and Michael Moore. Yes, I said it.

Here Comes Pharmaheit 9/11
Controversial film maker Michael Moore is targeting the drugs companies
by Sylvia Pfeifer

"Send me your health care horror stories…" reads the appeal. The stark request heads a letter from Michael Moore, the controversial filmmaker, published on his website last month which asks for real-life examples of people's bad experiences of hospitals, insurance companies and drug makers.

Renowned for his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 in which he took on the Bush Administration over the war in Iraq, Moore's latest target is the health care industry.

Work on the film, Sicko, has been in progress since 2004 and it is finally expected to be premiered later this year but already speculation about its content has put the industry on the offensive.

If executives at health care companies worry they might come off badly in the film, Moore's letter leaves little doubt: "Have you ever found yourself getting ready to file for bankruptcy because you can't pay your kid's hospital bill, and then you say to yourself: 'Boy, I sure would like to be in Michael Moore's health care movie!'?"

Moore says he will read every letter: "…if you have been abused in any way by this sick, greedy, grubby system and it has caused you or your loved ones great sorrow and pain, let me know."

Executives in the US admit the forthcoming film is a cause for concern but most are resigned to the fact that Moore is unlikely to take a balanced approach.

"It is a concern… but Michael Moore has very little credibility with mainstream Americans," says Ken Johnson, the senior vice president of the trade group Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America. "For every horror story Michael Moore produces, we can produce 1,000 success stories, but he's not interested in them."

Nevertheless, it is not just Moore who is on the attack. Other films such as The Constant Gardener, based on the novel by John Le Carré about corruption in the industry in Africa and which won Britain's Rachel Weisz an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress last month, and the book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, by a former Pfizer employee, have only added to the industry's woes.
...

I would agree that Mr.Martins removal of most of the money for transfer payments is a major reason for what situation Canadian healthcare is in. I can Cleary remember VGH in Vancouver and General in Calgary both had nurses colleges attached to them (I am not sure it they exist anymore)

You also realize that doctors and nurses will go where ever they feel appreciated and compensated for their work... and if a province is paying them dirt... why should they stay? They owe us nothing

I can clearly remember talking with nurses in Saskatoon and they made less than me as a warehouse manager in Vancouver. Something is seriously wrong with that and provinces need to generate anyway of keeping nurses and doctors well paid and around for a long period of time.

This is where a percentage based two-tiered health care system can come into play, where they still have to serve in private and public (not one or the other)

This way they get paid well, stress is reduced (hopefully the private will take better care of the staff than public does)

Lets face it Health Care is a RIGHT not a Privilege, but we also must make the leap that if someone has the means financially to get something fixed they should have the right to do so and shouldn’t be forced to leave their country to do so (keep the money locally)

Yes in a perfect world we would only need a public health care system where the government and unions dance and sing and build homes for the homeless

That aint going to happen in my lifetime

I embrace the idea of two-tier over a busted public system that cant be fixed and in marches the HMO's from Hell

Something tells me that we will need to bite the bullet on this a little and realize that yes two-tier does exist and we need to insure that public does not suffer to the private sector.

I would rather bite the bullet and have some form of public health care for my children than have them with nothing.