How Does U.S. Healthcare Rank?
You may have heard recently that the U.S. healthcare system is a national embarrassment. I wouldn't be so quick to believe those reports.
John Stossel -- Why the U.S. ranks low on WHO's health-care study
Even with all that, it strains credulity to hear that the U.S. ranks far from the top. Sick people come to the United States for treatment. When was the last time you heard of someone leaving this country to get medical care? The last famous case I can remember is Rock Hudson, who went to France in the 1980s to seek treatment for AIDS.
So what's wrong with the WHO and Commonwealth Fund studies? Let me count the ways.
The WHO judged a country's quality of health on life expectancy. But that's a lousy measure of a health-care system. Many things that cause premature death have nothing do with medical care. We have far more fatal transportation accidents than other countries. That's not a health-care problem.
Similarly, our homicide rate is 10 times higher than in the U.K., eight times higher than in France, and five times greater than in Canada.
When you adjust for these "fatal injury" rates, U.S. life expectancy is actually higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation.
Diet and lack of exercise also bring down average life expectancy.
For more evidence to suport John's argument, check out UK cancer survival rate lowest in Europe - Telegraph. The article includes a chart listing cancer survival rates for various countries. The U.S. leads the list with a 62.9% survival rate for women and a 66.3% survival rate for men. Where do you want to get cancer?
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