Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Roger's journal entry: The scary truth about socialized health care
Did you hear the story about the Canadian who died waiting for surgery because of their socialized health care system? I must admit, there is something scary about the phrase socialism.
In contrast, our supply and demand-based system does a fantastic job at giving us products we want at prices we can afford. Sure, it's not perfect. We have to watch out for monopolies and make sure they aren't pumping toxic waste into our rivers. But despite its flaws, I am a big believer that capitalism tempered with reasonable regulation is a pretty magical system.
But I have been thinking lately how the health care system is not a very good candidate for capitalism. For starters, health care is a service everyone should have, not just those with money. With capitalism, if you can't afford a $50,000 Cadillac, then you don't get one. Bummer, but life goes on.
But there is something different about one of us needing a life-saving $50,000 surgery. It seems inhumane to let someone die because they can't afford it.
That is what health insurance is for, you say. Yes. But in a capitalist-based health care system, the first duty of insurance companies is to be profitable. If they are not profitable, they go out of business. So they try to be efficient like every other business. They do this primarily by not accepting customers that *could* be expensive, dropping ones that *are* expensive, and denying coverage for treatments when the law allows. I am sure you can think of at least one example of an insurance company making a decision that was good for its bottom line and bad for you.
The end result is that over 50% of bankruptcies in America are estimated to be caused by health costs draining a family's savings. You may have been saving for your retirement for decades, and it could be wiped out by one serious illness. This happens even to insured individuals thanks to maximum coverages and other loopholes.
In the last few months my two-year-old son has needed two minor surgeries. Even though we have health insurance, we still had to pay several thousand dollars. Luckily, we can afford these costs, but what about those living paycheck by paycheck? Or those who were laid off?
Our system may be broken, but do others work any better? I wanted to find out for myself, so I have spent a few hours researching how other nations do health care and how we compare. Here are a few things I learned.
- In 2000 the World Health Organization ranked the United States as 37th in health care quality. France and Italy - with their socialized health care - were the best. (source)
- More recently, the highly regarded Commonwealth Fund analyzed us against five other nations - Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. We came in last or next to last in most categories. (source)
- There are 37 other countries with life expectancies higher than us. Every rich nation in that list has socialized health care. (source)
- American spend 200% more on health care than the following countries: France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, United Kingdom. And every one of them has a higher life expectancy. (source)
- When people are asked how satisfied they are with their health care, we rank near the bottom of other rich nations. One survey that asked 7,000 people in five nations (US, Canada, Australia, UK, and New Zealand) showed Americans as the least satisfied. America is the only country that does not offer government sponsored health care. (source)
- Among rich nations, we have the highest infant mortality, highest death rate of 1-4 year olds, highest premature death, and near the worst in healthy life expectancy at age 60. (source, source)
These are facts. It seems to me that if people with socialized health care are more satisfied, pay less, and live longer than us, then that is ultimately a better system.
Let me repeat that: People who have socialized health care are more satisfied, pay less, and live longer than Americans. That is not a democratic talking point. It is a fact.
We already have socialized fire departments. Socialized police departments. Socialized military. These are examples where it makes sense to have society pull together and work as a team to help each other out.
I think health care is another good fit where we all pitch in and collectively share the costs. Some will get less than they pay in; some will get more. But no one should have to die because they can't afford a $50,000 bill.
Socialized health care is not without its flaws, and we should be honest about where it can be improved. For every Canadian tale we can find an equally tragic American one. The proof comes when we aggregate the evidence and look at it in summarized form.
Let us look at those systems and pick out the best of what works, leave behind what doesn't, and work to make our health care system the best in the world. Thirty-seventh is not good enough.