Healthcare Debate

The current healthcare debate is driving me slightly nuts. Republicans are lying and Democrats are using a lot of weasel words in the debate. The Republicans are drawing the line by refusing to support any plan that has a publicly financed option, and the Democrats have retreated to the point that they will not even consider a single-payer plan. Having a government financed public option competing with private plans is about the most progressive hope out there, and even Obama is wishy-washy in his support. Everyone is concerned about the cost and the massive tax increases that a public plan would entail, but what most politicians and commentators fail to mention is that the money is already there in the system we have today. There should be more than sufficient money already being spent on healthcare to give everyone in the USA first rate care. Right now, the US spends more money per capita than any other nation in the world, and still leaves people uninsured and under insured. That existing money just has to be redistributed and spent more efficiently.

Here are some interesting statistics on healthcare among the OECD countries in 2004. The OECD is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and consists of the top 30 developed countries.

................................................................US.....OECD average

per capita spending............................$6,102..$2,560

% of GDP................................................15.3....8.9

admin costs per capita .......................$490.....$66

life expectancy.....................................77.5.....78.3

infant mortality(per 1000)..................6.9........4.0

deaths by medical error (per 100k).....0.7........0.4

It certainly seems that the USA isn't getting much bang for its buck. I constantly challenge my conservative friends to name one empirical bit of evidence that the US is the best in any medical outcome they choose to measure. Based on their responses and the research I've done, I pretty sure I can safely say there are NONE!

Most of the OECD countries have some mixture of private and public insurance, with everyone guaranteed a certain base level of care, usually with no direct cost to the consumer. Surely we can come up with a better system than what we have, but long as the issue is demagogued by politicians and lobbyists keep throwing money at politicians, I'm not so sure.

If you want to read more, here's the link the OECD report.