Our health care system is killing us. True

From Reuters today:  Americans die sooner than citizens of a dozen other developed nations and the usual suspects -- obesity, traffic accidents and a high murder rate -- are not to blame, researchers reported on Thursday.

Instead, poor healthcare may be to blame, the team at Columbia University in New York reported.

They found that 15-year survival rates for men and women aged 45 to 65 have fallen in the United States relative to the other 12 countries over the past 30 years.

Such figures are frequently cited by supporters of healthcare reform, and critics often point out that the United States also has higher rates of obesity, more traffic fatalities and more murders than these countries.

Three things to keep in mind, folks:  

1)  America has the MOST EXPENSIVE health care system IN THE WORLD;

2)  We rank 37th--behind Costa Rica, for pity's sake--in mortality (we die sooner than 36 other nation's inhabitants);

3)  According to this study, our own health care system is likely having a negative impact on our health and longevity.

If you only know these 3 facts--and believe me, there are many, many more to be shown and known--you know our health care system is broken and badly broken, at that.  It needed fixing.  It needed even the small, watered-down reform it got this year.

Another thing we need to know--and do:  We need to be sure we don't repeal this health care reform.  Far from it.  If anything, we need to revisit it (won't happen) and make it stronger (also won't happen) and include, this go-round the "public option" of government offering competitive insurance for us all, so insurance companies don't have the situation they do now of not having real competition so they can increase our costs ad infinitum.

I can dream.

Link to original post:  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69609H20101007?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+reuters/topNews+(News+/+US+/+Top+News)