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<H2 class=date-header><SPAN>Friday, January 11, 2013</SPAN></H2>
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itemscope="itemscope" itemprop="blogPost"><A name=7752079009082732113></A>
<H3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><FONT size=5>US health care:
A lesson in market failure </FONT></H3>
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<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class=separator><A
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"
href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bpo7eCqS_F4/UPCAIjsXkWI/AAAAAAAAGgI/o8BTG96bwLw/s1600/US_spends_much_more_on_health_than_what_might_be_expected_1_blog_main_horizontal.jpg"
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src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bpo7eCqS_F4/UPCAIjsXkWI/AAAAAAAAGgI/o8BTG96bwLw/s400/US_spends_much_more_on_health_than_what_might_be_expected_1_blog_main_horizontal.jpg"
width=400 height=295></FONT></A></DIV><FONT size=5>by Richard Mellor<BR><BR>US
health care delivers the worst bang for the buck compared to most industrialized
nations and we have a worse infant mortality rate than Cuba. In 2012, the US
spent $8,233 per year per person on health care, that’s two and a half times
more than most developed nations. And US health care consumes almost 18%
of GDP twice that of some countries and one and a half times the OECD average.
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>The US sickness industrial complex and mass
media boasts of our superior technology and research which is true, but the most
important aspect of a nation’s health care is public health.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As I have pointed out many times before,
the diseases and death (infant mortality and low life expectancy for example) in
the third world, is due to infrastructure and poor public health systems, not
specialized care or the lack of liposuction procedures or laser surgery.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is an economic and political
problem, a by-product of the market. A</FONT><A
href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/10/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries.html"><FONT
size=5> report on PBS</FONT></A><FONT size=5> last October pointed out that for
this 17c on every dollar we spend on health care we don’t get such a great deal
noting that:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>In the United States:</FONT></DIV>
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<LI style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"
class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>There are fewer physicians per person than in
most other OECD countries. In 2010, for instance, the U.S. had 2.4 practicing
physicians per 1,000 people -- well below the OECD average of 3.1.</FONT></LI>
<LI style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"
class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>The number of hospital beds in the U.S. was 2.6
per 1,000 population in 2009, lower than the OECD average of 3.4
beds.</FONT></LI>
<LI style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"
class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>Life expectancy at birth increased by almost nine
years between 1960 and 2010, but that's less than the increase of over 15
years in Japan and over 11 years on average in OECD countries. The average
American now lives 78.7 years in 2010, more than one year below the average of
79.8 years.</FONT></LI></UL>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>A new report by the National Research Council
and Institute of Medicine published this week finds that things have not
improved, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“Americans die younger and have
more illnesses and accidents than people in other high income countries”</I> the
</FONT><A
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324442304578231652153488158.html"><FONT
size=5>Wall Street Journal</FONT></A><FONT size=5> quotes the report as
saying.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is even the case with
wealthier, insured and college educated Americans.<BR><BR>The study reports that
the US comes close to the bottom when measured against 17 other <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“affluent”</I> countries; the bottom in life
expectancy, and <I>"high rates"</I> of infant mortality, obesity, diabetes,
heart disease, chronic lung disease and more. <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“The US health disadvantage is pervasive….”
</I>the study states, affecting <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“...all
ages up to 75…”. </I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><BR></I><FONT
size=5>The authors of the study attribute these extremely poor statistics given
our wealth and technological supremacy to many factors not least the huge chasm
between the haves and the have nots in US society which has a greater inequality
gap than China.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><BR><BR></FONT><A
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: right; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; CLEAR: right"
href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oziWN3jiwGM/UPB_zPg3P4I/AAAAAAAAGgA/Afu2T90i_d0/s1600/Life_Expectancy_1.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><FONT size=5><IMG border=0
src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oziWN3jiwGM/UPB_zPg3P4I/AAAAAAAAGgA/Afu2T90i_d0/s400/Life_Expectancy_1.jpg"
width=400 height=218></FONT></A><FONT size=5>The problem is that in the US,
medicine is a business and is market driven.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is not a moral question, people die
like flies in the third world for the same reason, food is a commodity, health
care is a commodity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For the market
to provide these basic human necessities the private owners of capital must make
profit; you can’t pay for food, you don’t get it. If Profit can’t be made out of
providing health care, they won’t provide it and you die. It’s basic market
economics.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>To stave off social unrest and due to the
struggles of generations of workers building Unions and political parties, other
industrial countries have national health care systems, cheaper and more
efficient than here in the US that's why they have this advantage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But these too are under attack,
ideologically and politically under pressure from the IMF, World Bank, EU and
other market proponents. More efficient for the owners of capital though doesn’t
mean greater access for the public whether health care or transportation; it
means more profits. That the most powerful capitalist economy in history cannot
provide decent health care, housing, or transportation for its citizens says
something about the market although the capitalist class will blame workers,
patients, riders whatever, anything but their mode of production.<BR><BR>It's
true that these other <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“affluent”</I>
countries are capitalist economies, but workers and workers’ parties social
gains have not yet been completely dismantled and there remains advantages we as
Americans don’t have although these are being eaten away also.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But we are in the belly of the beast
here, without money you are nothing, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“you’re on your own baby.” </I>Hero,
veteran, work all your life, small community business, if you fall on times it
is a ruthless environment as the recent Great Recession has shown. You have to
<I>“pull yourself up by your bootstraps” </I>like George W Bush and Donald
Trump.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As JP Morgan said; <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“I owe the public nothing”,</I> when he owed
the public everything.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>US workers prior to the crash worked on
average about two months a year longer than our brothers and sisters in other
advanced capitalist countries with less to show for it. It's why we were more
productive, we were on the job longer, have less leisure time. The insecurity,
pace of life, and living in a 24-hour marketplace takes its toll---we are always
customers. In most advanced economies ads for prescription drugs on TV are not
allowed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For us we are bombarded
with ads warning us of diseases we have never heard of and the need for their
pill to cure them. We are consistently preyed upon by the coupon clippers who
must extract their pound of flesh and the TV is their window to the home. This
is a major reason for the statistics we read above on illnesses, the social
power the capitalist class has and a profit driven health system. A public
national health care system is what will open the door to improving the
situation</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>Naturally, the free market gurus and their
supporters will oppose such measures and even refer to it as communism which is
not uncommon. I can’t help bringing the readers’ attention to Hilary Clinton’s
comments in the latest Business Week, a piece covering her trips around the
world on behalf of the bankers and US corporations. <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“If you can’t compete, fairly, honestly
effectively…”</I> she tells Business week, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“..no government should intervene”.
</I></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>In the light of recent events when the US
taxpayer made available about $16 trillion to US banks to drag capitalism from
the abyss, I am wondering if we live on the same
planet.</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>