Don’t forget that the greatest health care system in the world still needs fixing, President-elect Obama.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chronically ill Americans are more likely to forgo medical care because of high costs or experience medical errors than patients in other affluent countries, according to a study released on Thursday.
The study comparing the experiences of patients in eight nations reflected poorly on the U.S. health care system as President-elect Barack Obama and his allies work on plans to rein in health costs and extend insurance to more people.
The researchers questioned 7,500 adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. Each had at least one of seven chronic conditions: high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and depression.
Dutch patients had the fewest complaints, while the Americans had plenty, according to the study by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health policy research group.
Fifty-four percent of Americans surveyed said high costs prevented them at some point from getting recommended medical care, filling prescriptions or seeing a doctor when ill. Seven percent of the Dutch cited cost as a barrier to treatment.
In addition, 41 percent of the U.S. patients said they spent more than $1,000 over the past year on out-of-pocket medical costs. That compared to lows of 4 percent in Britain and 5 percent in France.
A third of U.S. patients said they were given the wrong medication or dosage, experienced a medical error, received incorrect test results or faced delays in hearing about test results, more than any of the other countries. […]
Almost half of the U.S. patients said their time had been wasted because of poorly organized care or had received care of little or no value during the past two years. These views were lowest in the Netherlands and Britain. […]
The Commonwealth Fund’s Cathy Schoen, who worked on the study, said the United States spends twice as much on health care as the others, with the current economic woes putting more people at risk of losing employer-provided health insurance.
“Overall, the United States stands out for chronically ill adults reporting the most negative experiences,” Schoen said in a conference call with reporters.
“In short, the U.S. patients are telling us about inefficient, unsafe and often wasteful care. The lack of access, combined with poorly coordinated care, is putting these patients at very high health risk and driving up costs of care.”
Who could have known that the “free market” is not the best way to provide health care services to all people? Or that it would result in the most expensive, wasteful, inefficient care in the developed world? Uh, anyone who lives in a country with a single payer plan, that’s who. Maybe we should talk to the Dutch and British governments before coming up with a “universal” health care plan, since they seem to know what they are doing far, far better than we do.
Just a thought.
A ranking of 38th among western developed nations was what I believe I saw for the U.S.A. in an article from ??? about six months ago. Maybe we could sell bumper stickers, “we’re # 38!” But if we go looking at the Europeans for help, why that’s nothing but pure Socialism, don’t you know?
“Let’s win in November, because we must.“
Ummmmm – I think we did. Didn’t we? :o}
Oops, guess I’ll have to get a new one up there. Thanks for the reminder.
Sen.Baucus’ universal Health Care Bill has been introduced and may have legs. (Sub req)
And those uncalled races — we may get to 59 plus Bernie Sanders with us on this, most certainly.
Let’s look for Begich to pick off Stevens and Franken to pick off Coleman.
UPDATE: Minnesota Senate race does not look good for Coleman. Franken down only 204 votes– a recount lasting two months – here and here
UPDATE: Alaska Senate race does not look good for Stevens. Begich leads as Ex-Stevens Pollster predicts: –Race is Over, Begich Will Win Sounds like maybe Stevens agrees – asks colleagues to hold off on explusion talk
Have we forgotten what “not for profit” means?
Is there no sense of ‘Do no harm” anymore?
Can we as a nation take care of our own? Especially the Vets?
Waiting for Barack, I say:
The plate is right over here. Please step up to it. And hit it out of the ballpark. I know you can hit.
My hopes and praises to you.
Last month, my daughter was hit by a car. Thankfully, she did not suffer any broken bones or other major injury, but still needed 3 days in a hospital. The first bill has arrived, from the ambulance, for $1500. We were both pretty horrified. She looked at me and said, “But, mom, there was nothing I could do! I wasn’t given a choice. I had to go in the ambulance. Why should we have to pay so much for something I had zero control over?” I explained to her that if we lived in any other country in the western world, there would be no charge for such a thing, but this is America. Crazy. I can only hope that one day she sees real health care coverage like most nations have.
I do have some basic coverage, and presumably the driver had insurance, so I trust I will get this paid one way or another, but it just completely adds to the already stressful situation.
I’m so sorry for your daughter’s accident. I hope the driver had insurance, because that should cover medical expenses up to the amount of the liability coverage.
In the meantime, hang in there. I would check ASAP re: the insurance company for the driver, get a copy of the police report, and contact the ambulance company or hospital (whoever billed her) to inform them that this is a charge owed by the driver who hit her and his insurance company and asking them to defer collection from your daughter until all the paperwork can be resolved and th4e claim settled. If you get any crap from them ask to speak to a supervisor and if the supervisor gives you crap, ask to speak to the Chief Hospital Administrator or head of the ambulance co. or whatever. And if they persist in demanding your daughter pay up right away contact the local newspaper and TV stations. This is the kind of story they like to run and the kind of publicity that hospitals/ambulance companies/etc. don’t like to receive.
Good luck
Thanks Steven. She is really almost recovered (though the emotional trauma is going to take a lot longer). I will obtain a copy of the police report and contact the ambulance. I think my insurance should cover the cost, less the usual fees. The problem I’m having is that for the most part, the accident was my kid’s fault; she ran across a busy street, trying to catch her bus to school. I’ve worked insurance defense and quite frankly, I don’t want a long protracted fight. I think pedestrians always have the right of way here, so maybe I can get them to at least cover my costs without having to pursue some sort of legal challenge.
At any rate, I just wanted to share how frustrating it is even for people covered. To worry about such things when you all ready have a full plate is no system at all and as my daughter noted, completely unfair when sudden and unavoidable (after all, we all have accidents and unexpected illnesses).
Years, ago, in the ’50s and ’60s, there was no charge for municipal ambulances. It was a public service. Then, private ambulance services complained about “unfair government competition”.
I recently had to ride a municipal ambulance. $670, thankfully paid for by workmen’s compensation. Emergency room, $831, which includes $78 for a wrist support available at Osco for $13.