America's current health-care system is among the very worst of all industrialized nations by every objective measure, such as outcomes and life-expectancy. And that's how wonderful it is for those of us who have insurance. The other 46 million of our fellow countrymen are literally dying on our streets. Will your own family have to be driven into bankruptcy, like millions of other American families, before you to wake up?
A true patriot doesn't reflexively assume that everything our country is, and does, must by-definition be "the best in the world".
Here are the facts:
• In 2006, the U.S. census reported that 46 million Americans have no health insurance.
• “Over a third (36%) of families living below the poverty line are uninsured.
• More than 9 million children lack health insurance in America.
• Eighteen thousand people die each year because they are uninsured.
• Half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. Three-quarters of those filings are people with health insurance.
• Administrative costs account for 31 percent of all health care expenditures in the United States. The average overhead for Canada’s national health insurance program is 1.3 percent.
• The infant mortality rate for the U.S. is now higher than for many other industrial countries. A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving than a baby in Detroit.
• Canadians live three years longer on average than we do.
• The Journal of the American Medical Association found that even the poorest Brits can expect to live longer than the richest Americans.
Notes on sources of this data.
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