I don't think you are in any position to argue with the World Health Organisation rankings. They have experienced all these services where you have not.
I would tip-toe around this area... people are still entitled to their opinion, particularly when they can back them up with statistics.
If people form baseless comments about the rankings then others should see through the comments anyway. People aren't arguing WHERE these nations should be rated over individual attributes.
Is this from a survey? I don't believe healthcare should be a competition of any kind.
I disagree. There needs to be SOME form of competition there to keep all aspects working hard and to prevent people in highly skilled positions, like doctors, moving to a different field where their efforts are better rewarded.
The key to the entire thing is keeping these people honest in their efforts. At the moment, that's not happening over there.
Do americans have a different definition than other people? Europe is no longer socialist but all have universal healthcare recognised as better than america.
I agree with your sentiment, but less with the way you've phrased it.
Conservatives tend to label a public health option as socialized health care to push the negative stigma behind the word "socialism" when in reality there's a pretty big discrepancy.
Socialism is an enveloping political system, it really shouldn't be a true socialized health system unless the dissolvement of the private sector takes place.
That is NOT what the vast majority of people are pushing for...
and allows outrageous prices. The US system spends outrageous amounts of money and doesn't see the returns in life expectancy.
Again, have to keep 'em honest.
When pushed that way with a decent public option it tightens the strings of those looking to profit from the private option (rather than joining together to screw the customer base).
What is certain is that the US model which leaves the poor to no other level of coverage than in ridiculously crowded ER rooms or remote access medical (which is generally reserved for 3rd world countries - who also cater a lot of the time for folk who ACTUALLY HAVE private health insurance but are left significantly underprotected as these companies have employees WHOSE JOB is to "save money" by looing through case by case and seeing which claims they can get out of paying for) and doing sweet f*** all to cater towards promoting a healthy lifestyle.
We practice preventative medicine. A doctor will provide an anti smoking plan or a diet plan. You can see a dietician on the NHS. This will involve regular check ups that the doctor will get paid for. So yes, but only because guiding a patient to a healthier lifestyle requires more appointments. They don't get bonuses but its logical, less smoking and less obesity will ease the burden on the NHS in years to come.
Yup. Sadly, Australia's been going away from that under conservative rule with no decent opposition over recent years. The more liberal party (which ironically enough is NOT the Liberal Party) is now in power and hopefully they'll knock our health system back a little further towards those days.
Pros- free at the point of service. No one has to worry about not seeing a doctor because they can't pay. No forms to fill in to insurers. No matter who you are, if you bleed on British soil you will get free care. (which makes the argument in the US about paying for illegals pretty sickening from my point of view)
cons- we need more of it. We need more doctors, nurses, dentists and facilities to match the growing population and increasing risks of unhealthy lifestyles.
The cons are the case because your system is stretched too thin.
As I said, its a fine balance and needs constant tweaking.
In Britain we have a public and private service. If your employer provides health insurance or you buy it yourself you will wait less time. There are fewer people in the private system so the wait is shorter but the care is the same.
The public service is funded by taxes and is regulated by the government. Which means you cannot be denyed funding for operations, you will not be crippled by aftercare debts you aren't covered by and prices are regulated to be kept low. NICE decides what drugs are available publically the same way insurers do, the difference is that NICE don't have a profit agenda. All ERs are run by the NHS and you can switch to private whenever you choose. You choose your own doctor if you have a preferance.
The care, I assume, wouldn't be EXACTLY the same. But you everyone would have a decent standard of general care the same as here in Australia.
Here private care WILL get you more, but mainly by going above and beyond. For example when my daughter was born we went private sector and the mother and myself were practically treated like Arabian princes.
I've heard cases of some new parents with private coverage being given a few nights at the Hilton (which in Adelaide would be one of the two biggest status, high falootin' hotels in the city) thrown in to relax in comfort after the anxious time of the child's birth.
My grandpa is going through the NHS for an arm injury caused by his years of work. He got a choice of hospital to visit and a choice of doctor. Last week he went for his first appointment, he waited 10 minutes to be called and got X Rays and they were analysed right in front of him within 10 minutes. Now he's waiting to be called in for further tests before he goes to surgery.
My Grandma had a stroke in 2005. She was in hospital for months. When she got out she had physiotheraphy and we paid nothing because it was all taken care of.
I got braces on the NHS which lasted for 4 years and had an appointment with an orthodontist every 3 months. I never paid anything. Prior to that I had to have 4 teeth taken out because my mouth was too small and they were pushing my front teeth out. I never paid anything.
All that and we still spend half the GDP that the USA does on health.
Which is really scary because a lot of the folk who use these R.A.M centres are getting basic dentistry, simple surgeries and even kids getting fitted for glasses...
Myself, I had major orthodontics done for nearly a decade on my teeth, went through the public sector, had the man widely regarded as the best orthodontist in the state working on me, he'd use me as a teaching aid and would routinely have younger orthodontists scoping out the happenings inside of my mouth and years later my teeth are far improved.
I couldn't imagine how deformed I'd look, or how out of pocket my family would be, if that were not available.
Mind you that these are the same people that scared the entire world into thinking H1N1 would be the end of civilization. They labeled it as a pandemic when the H1N1 only infected and killed an extremely small number of people as compared to the regular flu. Just because they are a large organization doesn't mean nobody can pick holes in their methodology. The US shouldn't be ranked #1 but they didn't take into account many of the things I listed. A country that predominantly eats healthier food, does manual labor in the fields to get exerice, has a small number of automobiles, and isn't a society that likes to embellish with alcohol, drugs, etc...then they are going to live longer lives than our country, that increases the per capita death age. Most every nation has access to important medicine and procedures in today's world anyways.
1. It WAS a pandemic. It has largely been kept low because nation have been taking the threat seriously, making efforts to isolate cases so that it doesn't spread wide. Because if it spreads wide its that much more time to clean it up again... time in which it could mutate.
2. The H1N1 situation is completely unrelated to this anyway other than you looking for a way to tear down WHO for some rankings you don't agree with.
3. Promoting a healthy lifestyle SHOULD be included when forming a health care system so I don't see why these things should push the US up the ladder. As I said earlier, you're ranked 37th DESPITE the level of care your doctors are capable of providing. Because nobody's doing a damn thing about promoting a healthy lifestyle in a way that will positively effect their hip pocket...
Life expectancy has many variables. Life expectancy in the US is not only determined by health care. Health care is part of it, but it is certainly not all of it. I do agree that the prices are outrageous and what I want to happen would fix that to help out everybody.
Yes it is. Because health care doesn't start and end in hospitals.
All businesses should be competitive. A doctor should work harder and more efficiently than a competing doctor to get your business.
Agreed.
There are certainly parts of your system that I admire, preventative care as you mentioned is extremely important. I also believe "Sicko" stated that doctors that practice preventative care and are successful do get bonuses so you might want to check into that. I certainly think it is a worthy practice that our government should take note of.
Agreed.
