As a country, America’s self image has always tried to stake out the high ground. We are there to “Do Good”. We are for “Freedom” and against the “Oppressors”. We are quick to condemn “Injustice”. We consider ourselves to be a nation built upon moral principles.
Are we?
At the end of 2010, our Congress struggled with, and finally passed, healthcare reform, i.e. the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Those against these changes kept to the theme that “socialized medicine is bad”. Apparently, they would prefer their medical treatment to be asocial, and that is exactly what a twelve-minute exam gets you.
Last year, a very interesting book was published named The Healing of America. It is a delightfully readable description of this very complex subject. Its author, T. R. Reid, is a Washington Post correspondent with a problematic shoulder. To get his shoulder fixed, and to discover the realities of medical practices in today’s world, he traveled to France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and India. In each country, he sought out the finest doctors and medical practitioners and asked for their advice. He also assessed the cost and the timeliness of the various remedies that were proposed. From this first-hand medical marathon, he developed an assessment of the national medical experiences from a patient’s point of view.
Then, he compared these systems to the medical practices found in America. He discovers that the myth we have the best healthcare in the world is challenged by the statistics. America ranks – 24th for healthy life expectancy, 37th in healthcare system performance, and 47th for average life expectancy at birth. The only measure in which we can claim that we are number one is cost.
Rather than be negative, however, Mr. Reid presents a very clear and concise description of the various types of health systems in the world and compares them to what America is doing. The comparisons are both instructive and revealing. In addition, he adds the systems that Taiwan and Switzerland have recently enacted. He argues that America should be able to study these systems, pick the best elements from each, and change to these more effective practices.
But the book ends where it begins, i.e. with the sobering message that more than 20,000 Americans in the prime of life die each year because they cannot afford healthcare. At the beginning and end, the question is a moral one. How moral a nation are we if we allow this to happen?
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