Health4all : Great Olympians but Terrible Health Care

Health4all

Every year more Alaskan families lose health insurance and can't afford health care. Every year more families with health insurance cannot afford to use it because of expensive out-of-pocket charges. Every year more Alaskan elders with Medicare are refused treatment by local physicians. And every year health care in Alaska continues to cost 30 percent more than down south. These problems are a reflection of the crisis across the nation. Not surprisingly, the United States ranks last in preventable deaths compared to 14 Western European nations. We have a lot to talk about.

Lawrence D. Weiss retired from UAA in 2004 as a research professor in public health. He designed and built the Master of Public Health program at UAA, and has published three books and numerous articles on public health and health policy issues. He completed a post-doctoral degree at Harvard School of Public Health in 1982, and has been in Alaska ever since. His favorite expression is "facts matter." Occasionally he can be found in a local pub drinking beer and eating pizza while engaged in passionate conversation with friends.

Great Olympians but Terrible Health Care

Posted by health4all

Posted: August 20, 2008 - 2:45 pm

US athletes are now showing their mettle, competing against the world in the Beijing Summer Olympics. Since the modern summer Olympics began in 1896, the US has been a force; consistently fielding a dominant cadre of athletes and ranking first, or among the top, in the overall medal count. In the spirit of competition and international comparison, [we] will look at how well our health care system stacks up against our peers in the international community.

The sobering truth of America's health care system is that it dramatically under-performs. In an August 2008 poll by the Commonwealth Fund, 8 of 10 adults agreed with the statement that the health care system "needs either fundamental change or complete rebuilding". This becomes even clearer when comparing our system with those of our international peers - each of whom guarantee coverage to all residents through a mixture of single-payer or mixed-payer public/private systems. In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked the performance of the US health care system 37th in the world. In this and other international comparisons, despite spending more than twice per capita than our peers, we are beaten on virtually every metric of health care cost, quality and access. In other words, we spend more and get less.

The US is the only major industrialized country that does not ensure coverage for all. At least 47 million Americans lack health insurance and at least 25 million more are under-insured, meaning their insurance does not shield them from high health care costs. In the World Health Organization's 2000 comparison of the world's health care systems, a key metric is "fairness in financing"; the degree to which financial contributions to health systems are distributed fairly across the population. On this measure, the US is ranked 54th, the lowest of all major industrialist countries.

[Excerpt from Stateside Dispatch, August 11, 2008]

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1 August 22, 2008 - 1:27am | Mikelou

Boulder Olympians weigh politics, pollution as they prep for Bei

The Boulder triathlete was trying to win a World Cup race, and do it while competing against some of the world's fittest humans."It was horrible. It was terrible," Reed, the nation's top Olympic triathlete, recalled earlier this week. "If it's anything like that this year, it's going to be horrible."
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Mike lou

Alaska Drug Addiction

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Great Olympians but Terrible Health Care