A Rumored City

The Eight Hundred Pound Gorilla

This is more important than terrorism, social security and the financial markets combined. It's a monkey, nay a gorilla, that's perched on our collective backs.

I'm speaking off the cost of providing health-care to Americans. Why does our medical care cost 40% higher than our European counterparts? Do we get better care? And in consequence do our indicators of health: infant mortality; longevity; and chronic disease numbers show that Americans are better off than Europeans? The answer may surprise you. We lag other industrialized countries of the OECD in every indicator. There are quite a few reasons for this. Obviously the statistics reflect the complete population. Some of us are more fortunate in our circumstances, i.e., if you have an expensive health insurance plan in this country the care you get is second to none. The problem comes in when you take into account the millions of Americans who are not covered by any insurance. Those are the families that have infant mortality rate that rival some third-world countries. They don't have access to simple primary care that's just routine in other countries.

There is also a profusion of specialists versus primary care physicians, who always cost more than your GP. Pharmaceutical prices are also spiraling out of control. I have recently had to start taking Zyrtec--an over the counter allergy-relief medicine--which costs over $20.00 for a fourteen days supply. How does a poor person afford that? And why does the same medicine cost about $3.00 in Poland?

This whole thought was triggered by my insurance bill. $562.00 per month for a man in his forties who's in pretty good health. How does one afford that? I have had this insurance for over twenty years. My premium used to be $40.00 per month and now it's $562.00. That's over a 1000% percent increase. I think that pretty much sums up our health-care dilemma. Now we wait for President Obama's plan to sort out this mess.

Posted at 06:18PM Apr 25, 2009 by Horatio in General  |  Comments[0]