Bad Value For Money

By Author: Norris Rios
Total Articles: 572
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There are always people in positions of authority who want to take pride in what they do. They hold their heads up high when they know the US is the best in the world in their field of activity. So we wonder how those in the healthcare industry currently feel. There is a new study published this September showing the US ranks 49th in the international tables for life expectancy. Put another way and taking men and women together, you will live longer and have a better life if you live almost anywhere else in the developed world. The question is why. Of course, we have very high levels of obesity. Too many people continue to smoke, apparently believing they have a magic pass on the resulting cancers. We continue to kill and maim millions of people a year on our roads. All this before we get to diseases and disorders we have no control over. Yet none of these represents the real answer.

According to a new study published this October by the Columbia University School of Public Health, the answer is simple. As a nation, we spend more than most of the other developed nations on health, but our healthcare industry is inefficient ...
... and fails more people than it saves. Yes, you read that right. We allow more people to die young than most anywhere else! Let us take specifics. Go back to 1975 and you will find the US ranked 5th in the world for the survival rate among 45-year olds. That fell to 12th in 2005. But you are going to need the power of prayer to keep you alive if you are a women aged 65 and above. Between 1975 and 2005, women's survival rates fell by 10% against the top twelve industrialized nations.

To give you the best understanding, all the other major countries have national bodies to regulate the forms of treatment made available to their citizens through the public health services. If a treatment is cost-effective, it is approved. Anything else is only available to people prepared to pay for it themselves or that is covered by their insurance. There is nothing comparable in the US. Doctors can give you whatever treatment, no matter whether there is evidence showing it effective. The majority of the more serious diseases and disorders can be prevented or treated effectively through early intervention. Other countries therefore promote early diagnosis. The health insurance industry in the US is only interested in treatment for diseases as and when discovered. They discourage doctors going out to look for new patients to treat. In the long term, this treatment model costs more than a healthcare model based on prevention. If you only treat someone when their symptoms are advanced, the costs are higher. Treat someone early and they need less treatment and have longer, more healthy lives. This does not suit the pharmaceutical industry or the major hospitals which earn their money from the long-term treatment of more serious conditions. The moral of this article is therefore clear. Assuming you cannot relocate to another country, you will live longer if you ensure your health plan or individual health insurance policy has good provision for preventative care. That represents the best value for money for you.