Women and children hurt worst.
Posted on 07/22/2008 12:42:10 PM PDT by newbie2008
On Friday I reported that the U.S. scored poorly on the Commonwealth Fund’s National Scorecard. Those in favor of universal health care are probably rejoicing. “The U.S. system is dysfunctional beyond repair and we need universal health care!”
Yesterday, the Economist reported on an article in The Lancet Oncology journal which found that the U.S. has the best five year survival probabilities for breast and prostate cancer. Score one for those against universal health care. “The American free market is always the best!”
How can this be? How can we reconcile these two results?
The Lancet Oncology article controls also for other covariates which are related to survival probabilities, but do not relate to the quality of health care. For instance, if Americans get cancer later in life than people from other countries this is taken into account since people who are older are more likely to die of almost all causes, including cancer. Further, if traffic mortalities or the homicide rate are higher in the U.S. than in other countries, this will likely decrease the probability a cancer patient survival for 5 years, but is unrelated to the quality of medical care. If Americans are more likely to be obese, this also will decrease their survival probabilities, but should not be an indictment against the health care system. For these reasons, the 5 year cancer survival probabilities are adjusted to take into account the age and death rates in the general population. After these effects are taken into account, the U.S. scores very well in terms of cancer survival.
Of course cancer survival is only one of a myriad of ways of measuring the quality of the American health care system. Further, the U.S. spends the most money on healthcare (in total and per capita) compared to any other country. While the U.S. may (or may not) be the best, it is certainly the most expensive.
For now...but if Obama gets elected....
““The U.S. system is dysfunctional beyond repair and we need universal health care!””
Well the administration of our health care system is quite convoluted...but our actual care is best in the world.
Socialized medicine kills cancer patients.
Must be because our health care system is so much worse than say, Cuba, Canada or England.
I’m a 2 year 4 month lung cancer survivor. Knock on wood. And I thank God for our health care system.
Well, God and The Ohio State University Cancer Hospital.
“Death rates to rise in Massachusetts.”
Very unlikely. Massachusetts probably has the best healthcare delivery system in the country. You can go through the specialties one-by-one, and it’s rare for Mass not to have 2 hospitals in the top 10 in the country.
Hmmm, seems they may have had a little problem with the quality of Cuba’s data.
*cough, cough* Surely not *cough, cough*
The five year survival rate means very little. The USA has the very best diagnostic technology which enables hospitals to treat them longer before they die. The mortality rate from breast cancer is almost a flat line from 1930. The net benefit from breast cancer treatment approaches zero.
There, fixed it for you.
Part of the reason for the US’s poor rankings in overall healthcare system stems from two factors:
1) the amount of hours we work relative to other nations (and hence stress we experience over a lifetime)
2) our nation’s obesity rate.
Both of these variables lead to myocardial infarctions, strokes, and diabetes. And diabetes leads to all sorts of complications, including MIs and strokes.
Our black population is especially prone to diabetes and strokes. Really, our large minority populations skew the statistics in these stories. Hispanics are very, very, very prone to diabetes. And as for our uninsured, over 40% of them are illegal aliens.
We have a lot of problems, but our healthcare deliverty system is not nearly as bad as these “surveys” let on.
As an aside, when they say on Canada has a smaller percentage of patients with labs on their f/u with their physician, I’d also like to see the average length of time between these appointments.
Since the subject is cancer survival, here’s a little pick me up for fans of Patrick Swayze.
Swayze:”I’m A Miracle, Dude”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article1449762.ece
must be all us americans going to canada and france for their healthcare and coming back cured!
I always thought the death rate was 100%. How can it rise above that?
In a decentralized system like ours, each patient is a profit center. Provide good service you get more patients into your hospital relative to your competitors.
In a universal system, each patient is just a cost center. No one’s revenues are increased by successful treatment. In a perverse way, your costs are lowered by death. What thinking person would think the benefits of such a system outweighs its costs?
That’s so wonderful to hear. God bless you and your continued good health.
Nope. Not 100%.
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