The Next Healthcare Battle

Thursday 7/20/2017 – Most people are at the least relieved with the demise of the latest vicious Republican healthcare proposal cooked by old-all-white-all-male-Republican Senators. Obamacare appears to be safe for the moment. But now is the time to double down on the battle for real healthcare reform in this country.

Millions are still not covered by Obamacare; the performance of the healthcare system is appalling; it is a giant ripoff of over-priced-super-profitable prescriptions and procedures masquerading as health.

Here are the basic facts:

  • Health outcomes: the US ranks
    • 56th in infant mortality out of 225 countries;
    • 48th in maternal mortality out of 184;
    • 42nd in life expectancy at birth out of 224. 1
    • all developed countries provide universal healthcare and do much better
  • Healthcare spending: the US spends more than double per capita on healthcare compared to other developed countries.

    (click for full size)

Obamacare Is Not the Solution

Obama and the Democrats never had the political will and strength to tell the pharmaceutical companies, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies that their game was over. We should be outraged that they charge exorbitantly high prices and deliver terrible results. But they live in a marketplace where they set the prices and the incentives in their marketplace urge them on to prescribe more drugs and procedures. The things that are being purchased in their marketplace are not health. We need to demand that we develop a healthcare system focused on health not profits.

The Proof Is In the Pudding

Just look at the chart from the Commonwealth Fund 2 comparing performance and spending. Certainly if all of these countries (and others not included in this study) have figured out how to deliver much better healthcare at half the cost we need to demand that our government do at least as well.

 

 

Footnotes

  1. Current CIA The World Factbook – https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ accessed 5/13/2017
  2. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2017/jul/mirror-mirror-international-comparisons-2017 accessed 07192017