US Health Care Not So Healthy

This is a piece that was on WebMD and thought people might like to see that all is not as good as some would have us to believe.

The overall health of the nation’s health system is no better than it was two years ago — and appears to have gotten slightly worse, according to a national scorecard.

The report was published by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health care think tank that supports universal health coverage.

The scorecard shows that people’s access to insurance continues to slip. Seventy-five million adults of working age (42%) lack health insurance or are uninsured. In 2003, that number was 61 million (35%).

The scorecard grades the U.S. health care system on 37 indicators in five areas of health system performance, including healthy lives and access to insurance and care.

In 2008, nearly every score fell or stagnated from where it was in 2006, according to the Commonwealth Fund. The overall score dropped from 67 in 2006 to 65 in 2008.

The study gets its scores by comparing the U.S. overall with averages in the best-performing states, or in some cases, foreign countries.

It shows a huge jump in the number of people without health coverage, and in the number of people who are exposed to financial ruin because of high health costs and inadequate insurance. Forty-one percent of U.S. adults have “problems” with medical bills or outstanding medical debt, up from 34% two years before. At the same time, around 60% of those people experience financial problems with medical costs despite having health coverage, according to the report.

The report compares the U.S. with other industrialized countries. In most areas, the U.S. does not fare well.

For example, the U.S. death rate (from treatable or preventable conditions such as diabetes and heart disease) before age 75 was 110 per 100,000 people in the total population in 2008. That’s the highest rate among 19 industrialized nations. Several other countries, including Ireland, U.K., and Portugal, were able to drop their early death rates significantly over that time.

American policy makers and voters have shown little interest in adopting a government-run national health system like those seen in other industrialized countries.

The whole wellness thingy is for the benefit of the insurance companies not the actual health of the insured.  The healthier the people the more insurance companies will make.  I say screw the industry I pay, so they pay.  Do not interfer in my life trying to make me feel that it is my fault because of the illness.