• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

U.S. Number 37 in Health Care But Number One in Costs

Sandhusker

Well-known member
I don't know about the others, but to address the amount we spend on drugs; The EU has a limit on what can be charged for drugs. The pharmas then jack up the costs here in the US to make up for what they can't make in Europe.

What a great deal for the EU, they pay little for the drugs, pass the costs of manufacture, research and development, etc... onto the US, and get a higher rating.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
reader (the Second) said:
Less Bang for Health-Care Bucks?

No. 37 is where the United States' health status was ranked by the World Health Organization. Here's how U.S. health care stacks up in other ways (in most recent statistics available):

· No. 1 in total health costs as a percentage of gross domestic product.

· $878 per person spent on pharmaceuticals -- the most among the world's 30 largest economies.

· 2.4 practicing physicians per 1,000 people in the United States. Countries with fewer physicians per 1,000 are Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea and Turkey.

· 3.1 hospital beds per 1,000 people -- the fewest beds per 1,000 among the world's 30 largest economies, except for Mexico, where there are 1.7 beds per 1,000.

· 34.3 percent of Americans are obese (with a body mass index of 30 or higher), the most of any developed country. :oops: :oops: HOW REVEALING

· 25.9 magnetic resonance imaging units per million people makes the United States No. 1 among the world's largest economies. The United Kingdom, in contrast, has about one third the number of the U.S.

· 84.5 coronary bypasses per 100,000 people makes the U.S. the second most bypassed among developed nations, topped by Germany which has 131.8 bypasses for every 100,000 people.

· 15.4 percent of the U.S. population are daily smokers -- the second smallest percentage among the world's 30 largest economies (only the Swedes smoke less).

SOURCES: World Health Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
 

alice

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Pig is a fool, R2...and we needn't suffer fools gladly. If that's the most he got out of that article...something to belittle with...then he's not worth responding to.

Alice
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
alice said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Pig is a fool, R2...and we needn't suffer fools gladly. If that's the most he got out of that article...something to belittle with...then he's not worth responding to.

Alice

You sure pasted your yap to my post. Took the bait hook line and sinker. :lol: I bet its a hoot at your house when the old mans home. I bet he can fire you up and keep you spewing for hours on end with one comment. he probably laughs his self to sleep. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

alice

Well-known member
Pig Farmer said:
alice said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Pig is a fool, R2...and we needn't suffer fools gladly. If that's the most he got out of that article...something to belittle with...then he's not worth responding to.

Alice

You sure pasted your yap to my post. Took the bait hook line and sinker. :lol: I bet its a hoot at your house when the old mans home. I bet he can fire you up and keep you spewing for hours on end with one comment. he probably laughs his self to sleep. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Is that what you were doing, Pig? Baiting me...little ol' me? Once again you refer to my domestic life...why, I must wonder. Just what are your insecurities, Pig?

Alice
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Well, aren't both points those guys made of importance to the issue of where the US stands on costs relative to other nations?

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Also, Americans are generally overweight. Every time I visit the US the first thing I think when landing in Houston is, my gawd, these people are huge.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Reader, do you realize that the WHO ranked Cuba just 2 places below us? A country where most folks can't even buy aspirin is #39?

From the Cato Institute;
The World Health Report 2000, prepared by the World Health Organization, presented performance rankings of 191 nations' health care systems. These rankings have been widely cited in public debates about health care, particularly by those interested in reforming the U.S. health care system to resemble more closely those of other countries. Michael Moore, for instance, famously stated in his film SiCKO that the United States placed only 37th in the WHO report. CNN.com, in verifying Moore's claim, noted that France and Canada both placed in the top 10.

Those who cite the WHO rankings typically present them as an objective measure of the relative performance of national health care systems. They are not. The WHO rankings depend crucially on a number of underlying assumptions— some of them logically incoherent, some characterized by substantial uncertainty, and some rooted in ideological beliefs and values that not everyone shares.

The analysts behind the WHO rankings express the hope that their framework "will lay the basis for a shift from ideological discourse on health policy to a more empirical one." Yet the WHO rankings themselves have a strong ideological component. They include factors that are arguably unrelated to actual health performance, some of which could even improve in response to worse health performance. Even setting those concerns aside, the rankings are still highly sensitive to both measurement error and assumptions about the relative importance of the components. And finally, the WHO rankings reflect implicit value judgments and lifestyle preferences that differ among individuals and across countries.
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Whitewing said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Well, aren't both points those guys made of importance to the issue of where the US stands on costs relative to other nations?

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Also, Americans are generally overweight. Every time I visit the US the first thing I think when landing in Houston is, my gawd, these people are huge.

#1 in costs, and also #1 in technology (MRIs).

Could it be that the majority of citizens in the US are not too worried about the higher costs of Health Care, if it means sufficient coverage by medical staff numbers, and having access to additional resources?

Is the number of beds a positive benefit of having a higher number of physicians?

Is paying for additional medication, keeping people out of hospitals, which would also cut down on beds needed?

Too many unanswered questions, and lacking information to come to any meaningful conclusions from the stats that are presented. IMO
 

alice

Well-known member
Whitewing said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Well, aren't both points those guys made of importance to the issue of where the US stands on costs relative to other nations?

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Also, Americans are generally overweight. Every time I visit the US the first thing I think when landing in Houston is, my gawd, these people are huge.

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Yep, and that irritates the honk outta me! Hells bells, SMZ tabs we give to our livestock are the same as the SMZ (bactrim) tabs prescribed by docs. I can get a huge bottle of them from the vet for a fraction of the cost were I prescribed the same amount by the doc and bought them from the pharmacy.

Alice
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
alice said:
Whitewing said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Well, aren't both points those guys made of importance to the issue of where the US stands on costs relative to other nations?

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Also, Americans are generally overweight. Every time I visit the US the first thing I think when landing in Houston is, my gawd, these people are huge.

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Yep, and that irritates the honk outta me! Hells bells, SMZ tabs we give to our livestock are the same as the SMZ (bactrim) tabs prescribed by docs. I can get a huge bottle of them from the vet for a fraction of the cost were I prescribed the same amount by the doc and bought them from the pharmacy.

Alice

Then I'll irritate ya some more. :D

After a visit, my vet always says, okay, now go buy XYZ in this amount etc etc etc. I can walk into any Agro-mundo store and buy everything that he would normally buy.....products that in the US can be purchased only by a licensed vet.

Certain "human" drugs require a prescription, but I'd bet 90% of what one needs can be bought over the counter without a doctor's visit.
 

alice

Well-known member
Whitewing said:
alice said:
Whitewing said:
Well, aren't both points those guys made of importance to the issue of where the US stands on costs relative to other nations?

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Also, Americans are generally overweight. Every time I visit the US the first thing I think when landing in Houston is, my gawd, these people are huge.

Drugs do cost much less outside the US. I see it here....and if I enter a pharmacy to buy something like an antibiotic, I don't have to first visit a doctor to get a perscription.....which adds tremendously to costs.

Yep, and that irritates the honk outta me! Hells bells, SMZ tabs we give to our livestock are the same as the SMZ (bactrim) tabs prescribed by docs. I can get a huge bottle of them from the vet for a fraction of the cost were I prescribed the same amount by the doc and bought them from the pharmacy.

Alice

Then I'll irritate ya some more. :D

After a visit, my vet always says, okay, now go buy XYZ in this amount etc etc etc. I can walk into any Agro-mundo store and buy everything that he would normally buy.....products that in the US can be purchased only by a licensed vet.

Certain "human" drugs require a prescription, but I'd bet 90% of what one needs can be bought over the counter without a doctor's visit.

Yeah, I know. It's the same in Mexico. When I go to Mexico, I always make a pharmacy stop.

Alice
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
$878 per person spent on pharmaceuticals -- the most among the world's 30 largest economies.

Does this additional cost contain:

subsidization for poorer countries?

are people willing to pay a little higher price to help out those that are less fortunate?
 

Tam

Well-known member
alice said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Pig is a fool, R2...and we needn't suffer fools gladly. If that's the most he got out of that article...something to belittle with...then he's not worth responding to.

Alice

If he doesn't have anything intelligent to allow, he simply calls whomever retarded and goes on his merry way.

Alice

Who's next Alice? :roll:
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
alice said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Pig is a fool, R2...and we needn't suffer fools gladly. If that's the most he got out of that article...something to belittle with...then he's not worth responding to.

Alice

Would calling someone a fool be similar to calling someone retarded? :?
 

alice

Well-known member
aplusmnt said:
alice said:
reader (the Second) said:
Yes, let's debate the issues, why don't we?

Pig is a fool, R2...and we needn't suffer fools gladly. If that's the most he got out of that article...something to belittle with...then he's not worth responding to.

Alice

Would calling someone a fool be similar to calling someone retarded? :?

Nope, altogether different. I'd weighed using the word "clown" rather than "fool," but "fool" just seemed so much more aptly descriptive.

Alice
 

alice

Well-known member
Hey Pig! Where did it go? Did you delete it? Must have.

That's ok...I saw it. It was meant for just me, wasn't it? Or was it? 8)

Dang, should've bumped it.

Alice
 
Top