Frequently, people point out the following facts:
1) Almost 50 million people are uninsured in the U.S.
2) People in the U.S. pay more per capita on health care than any other nation in the world.
3) Despite #2, our society has very poor health "outcomes" when compared to nations that have some kind universal government medicine/insurance programs. These outcomes are usually stated in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality and so on.
This question is intent upon reconciling these three facts. [Note, for people inclined to dispute them, it should serve our purposes here to grant that they are true.] A common assertion is that we have a very poor health care system despite spending a great deal of money on it. However, #3 is calculated with regard to combining the entire population, insured and uninsured. Separating the outcomes with regard to insurance would inform us on whether the overall outcomes are due to poor medical delivery generally or whether the uninsured are driving down the numbers. It may be that for people in a position to pay for it, U.S. health care is world class in terms of outcomes.
Some of you will be inclined to respond to this line of thinking by arguing whether or not reform is needed and on the manner of reform. Such answers would be entirely missing the question. I don’t wish to revisit that tired debate. I am asking this question because I am legitimately interested in the answer. If you are unable to find facts to answer my question, you should discuss the implication on the wider debate. Are people really analyzing the problem at the proper level, or do they just take whatever existing data that they can find and fit it to the conclusion that they prefer?
Just some Guy:
You write about real problems that deserve debate. However, you fail to address the question. Would you care to read it over and try again?
Here is a clarification:
The average life expectancy of the entire U.S. population is about 78 while it is over 79 for nations with universal government health care. Answering my question might reveal that the life expectancy of people in the U.S. with insurance is 83 (making that up as illustration – I don’t know, which is why I’m asking).
Of course, life expectancy since birth is not conducive to separating lives between insured and uninsured (bonus consideration to answers that can say why). So we would need other statistics. Again, if data to answer my question is lacking, are we sure that we are drawing the right conclusions from the available data?
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