Health Care

As I was trying to fall back asleep after my two hour nighttime nap, I was reading the May 2010 edition of Men’s Health.  In there was an article regarding just how f’d up the American health care system is.  It also made various comparisons to the French system which is generally regarded as one of the best in the world.  Like most people, I am not overall a fan of the French but at least in this one regard, they seem to have hit the nail on the head.  Let me just quote a few paragraphs.

The French health care system in general reimburses individuals for 70% of their health care expenses via a direct deposit into their checking account.  Most French have secondary insurance that helps defray that remaining 30% as well.   If you are unlucky enough to have a SERIOUS condition like heart disease, cancer or stroke you are no longer covered at a 70% rate, you are covered 100%  Unlike the American system which rewards the young and the healthy, the French system actually protects those with serious health conditions instead of throwing them into the abyss of sure bankruptcy. (Ok this was a paraphrase, here are some quotes)

This insurance will stay with a French citizen if he ever switches job – no angst, no waiting period, no hassle over preexisting conditions.

…more than half of bankruptcies in America cite out-of-pocket medical costs as a factor.

From a French Doctor – “If you are young and healthy, then the American system is good” he says. “But if you’re sick it is not so good, right?”

The French are skeptical of letting the market control health care. “Health care is a common good” one Frenchmen told me, smugly. “It is not Pepsi-Cola.”

National health insurance was first proposed by Harry Truman in 1945…

How can the French offer high quality care to everyone in the country from cradle to grave, and still spend less per person – by more than a third – than we do? The French say it’s really no mystery: They spend less because no one is trying to become rich delivering health care to the French people.

While the French layout next to nothing for marketing, American hospitals, health insurers, and drug companies spend more than $30 BILLION a year on advertising and promotion.  They’re essentially using a big chunk of our health care dollars to encourage us to come back and spend more of our health care dollars.

In 2009, even as unemployment topped 10 percent and more than 15 million Americans searched for work, the five largest U.S. health insurance firms pulled in 12.2 billion in profits – a 56 PERCENT INCREASE OVER 2008.

Of course, perhaps the most disconcerting part of our market-driven system is the way it skews the very type of care we receive. Over the past several decades, study after study has shown that the best, most efficient way to deal with major killers like cancer and heart disease is through a combination of prevention, lifestyle changes, and early screening. Alas, our health care system does basically the exact opposite, funneling most of the money toward pricey drugs and procedures that people need only when they’re already sick.

There isn’t much profit in selling prevention and lifestyle changes, but there’s a really good one in selling pharmaceuticals, high tech medical procedures, and high deductible insurance policies.

This should be enough for health care skeptics to chew on. Do I expect sweeping changes such as this to ever take place in the US?  Nope.  The infinite amount of resources at the command of pharmaceutical, insurance and medical companies to enforce their will upon the US Government system makes any hope of such change impossible to achieve.  The best most of us can do is just hope we don’t get seriously sick as if the thought of how our health care system runs currently doesn’t make you sick enough already. 

12.2 BILLION DOLLARS and 56 percent increase in profit in ONE YEAR…. one year…

If you would like to read the entire article, go here