I blame George Bush/Barack Obama

it is a shame he picked the candidate agains UHC to support, then

The myth is perpetuated by the Kings coming to Mayo Clinic or M.D. Anderson for treatment. And if everyone had access to those facilities, that level of care, we would indeed have the best care anywhere.

But everyone does not have access to those facilities. Everyone does not have insurance. Those with insurance can not afford the deductibles. Those factors lead to the depolrable statistics that Daschle is correctly quoting.

I have long though the issue is this: do we want a solid health care system for all citizens, or just one that works for the insured or the wealthy? I think we want the former.

The people against this cite fears that we will lower the quality of health care available at the margin in order to have a solid system for all.

I do not believe that to be the case. In fact, for all the touting of the US as the R&D center for health care of the world, India has now come up with a heart surgery done under local anesthesia where the patient is awake, results are very good, and the patient recovery time is much faster.

There are other examples, such as the UK having full electronic medical records.

We think we have the corner on this stuff until we open our eyes. I am Daschle is out there trying to destroy the myth

As much as I sympathise with Daschle's point, all Native Americans are entitled to free health care from the Indian Health Service. So I'm not sure what his point is with Pine Ridge . . .

Ummm...on a per capita basis, we are worse than 37th in getting Olympic medals.

The Botswana example is a poor choice. He's using it as an example of third world country with bad health outcomes. The truth is, it is the best run country in Africa (or at least on the very short list) but facing a horrific AIDS epidemic.

Marc...while true that the HS provides free health care, the funding of it has been woefully inadequate for years. The quality has suffered greatly. The stat that Daschle uses to highlight that point is life expectancy. You could look at others--infant mortality, uncontrolled diabetes, etc--and make the point that way as well.

Dacshle's point is critically important but incomplete. The problems we must fix with HC Reform MUST include all 3 of the "iron triangle" pieces of the HC system, Access, Cost, and Quality. They are interrelated and must be reformed together.

This means the problem must not be framed as AHIP would prefer, as a problem with access, b/c then AHIP would define that problem further as access equals having a private insurance policy. That leads to their solution being a national mandate that everyone purchase one of their products (akin to the horrid imploding law we were saddled with here in my state of MA).

The cost aspect of the problem is very real and a big cause of that is doctors doing unneeded things to patients and ofttimes these things harm rather than help, in addition to wasting huge amounts of HC money. Plus the economic waste inherent in the private insurance industry with their 15-30% admin. spending, obscene CEO salaries while 47Mil go uninsured and millions more under-insured, and the dehumanizing layers and layers of bureaucracy.

The poor quality piece of the problem is largely caused by the previous 2 pieces of the HC System crisis, that of lack of universal access to preventive and primary care, and the afore-mentioned cost drivers that also include endless types of cost shifting that wastes huge sums of HC money.

Then there's the need to frame the HC Crisis as a symptom of deeper and broader problems in U.S. society. HC system reform is something to be tackled this year, for sure, and improved Medicare-for-All would provide the best solution with the Public Insurance Option approach being a distant second.

An excellent resource for understanding the broader causes of the very poor health experienced by so many in the U.S. (that will explain the multi-factoral causes of the Indian Reservation dismal health stats very clearly) is a recent film and action campaign.

It is "Unnatural Causes…is inequality making us sick?"
that aims to "enlarge our public discourse about health; to move health discussions "upstream" - beyond the individual-focused "repair shop" model of disease and illness to a preventive approach that looks to change the underlying conditions that shape whole group outcomes; and to communicate hopeful solutions that draw public and policy maker attention to innovative and community-based initiatives for health equity.

Check it out at http://www.unnaturalcauses.org

Scott you don't realize that the individuals dragging down are results are all covered by public plans?

All public plans are underfunded, thats why we need to take government out of HC, they underfund and kill it.

"Those with insurance can not afford the deductibles."

dare we ask where you pulled this stat from? If I can interupt you with some facts, since you seem short of them, any given year over 80% of those with insurance don't meet their deductible. Your statement has no basis in reality.

"UK having full electronic medical records."

maybe you should tell the UK this.

” Of these, Finland is likely to be first, with a planned launch by the end of next year. Meanwhile, the UK has been struggling to roll out its digital health record system for more than four years, with little to show for its efforts."

Ann Malone,

"Plus the economic waste inherent in the private insurance industry with their 15-30% admin. spending"

Have you ever seen yahoo finance? Its a very simple site that would allow you to look up actual loss ratios and administrative expenses so you wouldn't make such inaccurate claims. No insurance company of any meaningful size has 30% admin cost. That would be illegal in a number of states. Further if you did any research at all before typing you would know Medicare loses more to fraud and waste then private companies spend on admin.

47 million, nice use of old data, are uninsured becuase they choose to me. If you actually looked into that number at all you would know all but 3-5 million already qualify for free insurance and CHOOSE not to enroll or make over $50,000 a year and CHOOSE not to buy it.

"improved Medicare-for-All"

BRILLIANT, lets broaden a bankrupt system that is not sustainable for the current population it covers. Not to mention the provider community would collapse if they where paid Medicare rates for all their patients. There is a reason no educated people are proposing Medicare for all, cause it ain't an option.