This is when you know reform is needed:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Economist praises the Swedish health care system over the American on issues of incentives.

Article linked here:

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13899647

Also....an image worth keeping in mind for defenders of the broken system:



Now, there's something wrong with this picture. See if you can tell me what it is.....

X-posted from my own LJ.

Comments

[koneko-desu.livejournal.com]

So...if the USA's government is already spending as much money, if not more than many of the countries in the world that has been praised for their public healthcare systems...why is the USA's system so...well...broken?? I'm genuinely confused, where is all that money going? Looking at that chart the US spends more money than Canada on its healthcare spendings per person and yet I think most people would agree that Canadian citizens enjoy a much better public healthcare system than Americans do. You guys should really start writing to the guys at the top demanding that they break down where all this money's going because it's kind of...ridiculous.

[merig00.livejournal.com]

the healthcare is better in USA... but the price of it!

[weswilson]

Better than where? Do you have any independent research to back that up?

[merig00.livejournal.com]

ok.. since i'm too lazy to do independent research... let me rephrase it care in USA is top notch

[dwer.livejournal.com]

if you can afford it.

[merig00.livejournal.com]

yes as i've said before the cost is the problem

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate capitalism? Those prices are dictated by the free market.

[redheadrat.livejournal.com]

When medical care in USA was dictated by free market, most people were paying for it out of pocket.

Now legislature is dictating most of the cost of medical care.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

How is legislature dictating most of the cost of health care?

[merig00.livejournal.com]

I blame my government for legislating in a way that the costs to the taxpayers have exploded without little real benefit to taxpayers.

[weswilson]

Again... there is good care in the U.S. But even our citizens don't think we have great care.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136990,00.html

Every study I've found shows we have comparable care... not superior.

[redheadrat.livejournal.com]

Kinda hard to compare two things when you have only experienced one.

[weswilson]

I have never experienced the distances between the sun and the moon, but I can adequately compare the distances from them. From my studies, I have seen how many people are happy with American health care, and I know how many people are happy with Canadian health care, and I can compare those numbers quite easily.

[redheadrat.livejournal.com]

still it is not a real comparison whether one is better than the other

USSR citizens believed that their education and healthcare were unsurpassed up until late 80s.

[kadeshaderow.livejournal.com]

...most peoplewould agree that Canadian citizens enjoy a much better public healthcare system than Americans do.

That's because other than medicare and medicaid, we don't have a public system.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

VA.
rated by its patients better than any private system in the U.S.

Your memory

[kadeshaderow.livejournal.com]

It's pretty short (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7681867)

Re: Your memory

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Your knowledge must be even shorter:

Walter Reed ARMY Medical Center is operated as part of the U.S. ARMY, not the Veterans Administration.

VETERANS are people who are not on active duty with any of the branches of the armed forces, hence the term VETERAN...

Re: Your memory

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

well hey if we can find the free time would you like to have an article fight?

how about you find every VA fuckup you can, and i'll find every private doctor/hospital fuckup i can, and whoever has more wins?

Fuck You

[kadeshaderow.livejournal.com]

n/t

Re: Fuck You

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

victory by default

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Too many useless regulations and a Congress unwilling to let go.

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

we need more doctors who are loose cannons but get results!!

house m.d. is realistic enough for me!!

[usekh.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing stuff about regulations being the problem. But which specific regulations are causing the problem?

Where your money is going

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're impressed by credentials, Princeton's James Madison Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Uwe E. Reinhardt (http://wws.princeton.edu/people/display_person.xml?netid=reinhard&display=Core) says that the U.S. spends "somewhere between 25 and 30 percent [on] administration" (http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/01/28/how-the-us-measures-up-to-canadas-health-care-system/3783/). Most of that comes from dealing with (and fighting with) your myriad insurance companies, whose primary fiduciary duty is to deny health care whenever and wherever possible (they owe it to their shareholders).