Health Care- A Global Perspective

This topic we haven't discussed on this blog yet, partly because I feel it is so polarized in America. But I keep hearing stories from various news outlets regarding the 'state' of the US healthcare, so I felt it was time for me to do my own research and take a comparable look at other industrial nations to see if we even need health care reform.

Our Ranking:

In 2000 the World Health Organization ranked the world's health systems. It ranked France as

number 1. At that time the US ranked 37, behind Costa Rica, & Dominican Republic and ahead of Solvenia and Cuba.

Preventable or Amenable Mortality:

Researchers from London in 2008 studied the amenable mortality, or deaths that could have prevented with good health care. Of the 19 Industrial nations they researched, France came in first, the United States came in second.

Cost:

The Commonwealth Fund did a study in 2008 and tracked chronically ill patients from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. In this study, the US has the highest percentage (54%) of chronically ill patients who did not seek the recommended care because of the high costs of medical bills. The lowest percentage went to the Netherlands (7%).

USA Today even did an article showing how countries provide and pay for the cost of health care with in their country. Interesting to note in this article, France offers health care coverage to all of it's residents including their illegal residents.

I am a fan of science, and all the research that has been done on the US health care system seems to prove that the US lacks in the health care services it offers to its residents. I guess I am missing a concept here and why this is such a big argument in the US. Why do we not want to improve the health care systems we offer to our residents? Can someone explain to me why this isn't an important matter?

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