Need some stats to support National Health Insurance

[NewJeffCT]

I know I've seen polls that indicate over 60% of Americans support universal national health insurance, even if it meant paying higher taxes. Unfortunately, I can't find the poll. Can anybody help me?

Thanks

I'm trying to put an LTTE together on the topic. I know the US ranks #37 in quality of health care, and like #53 in access to health care.

Any other good stats I can throw out there?

[bballny]

1. we spend 14% of GNP

on healthcare while the rest of the industrialized world spends 7.7%.

[NewJeffCT]

2. thanks - do you have a link

I'd like to have a source when I send it in.

[TahitiNut]

18. Personal Consumption ...

[Inland]

3. Paul Krugman had some interesting columns

on health care for NYT. His argument was that much of the cost of health care isn't for health care at all, but in shifting the burden of payment.

That is, the cost of the the clerks and office workers who look for insurance companies to pay, the insurance companies that try to deny benefits, the appeals to government agencies for reimbursements, the whole paper chase.

Krugman argued that a national health care system would eliminate the cost of looking for and shifting the cost.

He may have some numbers.

[NewJeffCT]

4. yes, that is correct

We pay a huge amount of overhead to actuaries and the like who decide how much premium to charge each person based on all kinds of numbers, charts, graphs, etc.

[kath]

17. yep, the insurance companies are bloodsuckers - parasites that suck

a HUGE amount of money out the system but contribute nothing of value. Money that could otherwise go to hospitals, docs and other providers of care and cover everyone at less cost.

[cynatnite]

5. I found this Harris poll that keeps dropping like a lead balloon...

Hope it helps.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112973460667273222-7Jjp4Ckx_LsV4qI5rjzrENNIcAQ_20061020.html?mod=blogs

[NewJeffCT]

6. thanks

good poll. I could not find the other one that had like 66% favoring universal health insurance even if it meant higher taxes.

[NewJeffCT]

7. kick

need more info.

thanks

[NewJeffCT]

8. early evening kick

or, late afternoon if you're on the West Coast.

[NewJeffCT]

9. another kick

not much help today... I guess too much Treasongate focus.

[NewJeffCT]

14. Friday kick

thanks

[Cleita]

10. This is the best website ever for national health care issues:

Physicians for a National Health Care Program,

http://www.pnhp.org/

You will find everything you need here and if they don't have it, they have the links to what you need.

On edit, here is a link to a WSJ article today about the matter.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2005/october/wsjharris_75_support.php

Apparently 75% of Americans approve of a national health care plan.

[NewJeffCT]

11. thanks

Who wouldn't approve of national health care?
Most big corporations would love to have it... heck, just about any business would like it.
Anybody that wants to start their own business, but can't because they don't want to lose their health insurance...

[Cleita]

12. The big problem why we don't have NHC is because the

healthcare, pharma and insurance industries are ruthless in their war to make sure it doesn't happen. Everytime we get close to getting something done, they start putting out operatives who sprinkle television, magazines, newspapers and websites with disinformation about how horrible it is in other countries and they actually sway people to their way of thinking. What they say is untrue or situations that happened years ago as if it were yesterday.

Back ten years ago, I saw a 75% approval drop to 55% in a matter of weeks because they were so efficient in getting their propaganda on all the news outlets. We who were working at a grass roots level to get some legislation on the table couldn't fight the huge money behind this.

Right now there is no problem for them because all the Repukes in Congress get huge donations from them and are beholden to them. So they aren't campaigning as vociferously as before because they know there is a fat chance in Hell, anything will get to Congress in the present political climate. Even Canadians and others coming on line and saying their health care is great doesn't make a difference anymore.

[NewJeffCT]

13. Most Americans wouldn't believe that...

So many of us have been fed the propaganda that the US has the best health care in the world that many actually believe it. If a Canadian or a French person went on TV to say how great their healthcare was, all the RW has to do is say, "rationing" and "socialized medicine" and many will get scared.

[Ally McLesbian]

15. Here, here!

I run a small business, and there is NO way under this damn system for me to get any healthcare. I've tried individual coverage, and have been denied for BS reasons.

I'm 29 now. Unless I see universal healthcare by age 40, I am moving to another country before a minor disease kills me in my 40s.

I have an uncle in Australia who is raving about the quality of life, including healthcare, he has. And his taxes are not much higher than mine. The notion that the US has the best healthcare system in the world is a myth at best and a propaganda at worst.

[Cleita]

21. Welcome to DU.

Australia might be a good choice for you while you are young enough to make the transition. Even if they extended Medicare to cover everyone in the future, it would be an improvement, although not perfect. I think we will see universal health care down the road, but not anytime soon.

Do you know that about 60% of our health care comes from the government anyway in the various medical programs, like Medicare, Medicaid, Champus, Chips and others that escape me right now? The other 40% in the private sector is a nightmare of private corporate health plans and insurance that cherry pick the healthy at the expense of people who need health care for profits.

If we went to National Health care we could deliver health care to 100% of everyone in America, keep the health care providers happy with decent rreimbursements, and do it for half of what health care costs in this country today with 40% of our citizens going without health coverage.

[Ally McLesbian]

22. Thanks for the welcome

As for the statistic you cite, I remember reading it off of a Forbes column a few years back, that American medical system is becoming socialized anyway. Of course, Forbes put it in a very negative light - as if some people do not deserve any healthcare at all to start with. I am really getting sick of the neocon culture of death.

You are right - the healthcare costs are just out of control.

Right now my goal is to grow my small business into something successful, so that these other countries will be bending over backwards to accommodate me as an "investor." Australia and Canada need all the entrepreneurs they can get, and they know it.

[kath]

16. Thousands of people die every year because of lack of access to health

care in the US. Can't remember the exact # - 28K, maybe? It was in a study that came out a couple of years ago.

Recent article on infant mortality - we are tied with *Malaysia*! It was in a British paper (?the Guardian) a couple of days ago and linked here on DU.

[NewJeffCT]

23. I think it's 18,000

I remember that because somebody, in an op-ed piece, had said it was 6 times the number that died on 9/11.

[Thirtieschild]

19. No stats, just experience

Actually, my daughter's experience. She married a Brit and works and lives in Yorkshire. She's found the National Health Service there a godsend. I've been impressed with what she's experienced.

When I think of the lot of the uninsured over here, my blood pressure goes into the stratosphere. If you don't have insurance but make too much money for Medicaid, you are flat out of luck. I know a couple who may lose everything they have because they can't pay the $121,000 they owe for his cancer treatment. It's disgusting. It's like we say, okay if you're rich, you can live. If you're not, tough.

[ultraist]

20. our system is not cost effective

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/health/expenditure.html

Despite the wide gaps, higher spending on health care does not necessarily prolong lives. In 2000, the United States spent more on health care than any other country in the world: an average of $4,500 per person. Switzerland was second highest, at $3,300 or 71% of the US. Nevertheless, average US life expectancy ranks 27th in the world, at 77 years. Many countries achieve higher life expectancy rates with significantly lower spending. The chart below shows the top 30 countries in the world ranked by life expectancy. The red line indicates per-capita health expenditure (right axis), and shows that many countries outperform the US with approximately half the spending.

And of course, despite the fact that we spend more per person, we still have 47 million Americans with no healthcare. Investing on the front end, paying now, prevents a lot of cleanup on the back end, paying more later.

[area51]

24. taxes

It's ironic, since we can have universal healthcare w/o higher taxes. All we have to do is stop wasting so much $ on the military/industrial complex.