Triumphrat

cafecruzin · 01-08-2008

interesting !
From correspondents in Washington | January 09, 2008

AUSTRALIA'S healthcare system may come in for constant criticism, but compared to most other countries, it is one of the best.

Australia came third in a list of 19 industrialised countries surveyed for their ability to provide timely and effective healthcare to its citizens.

The study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs measured developed countries' effectiveness at providing timely and effective healthcare.

The study, called Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis, was written by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

It looked at death rates in subjects younger than 75 that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical care.

While France came out on top, the US came dead last.

The researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 per cent, the US had only a 4 per cent dip.

The non-profit Commonwealth Fund, which financed the study, expressed alarm at the findings.

"It is startling to see the US falling even farther behind on this crucial indicator of health system performance,'' said Commonwealth Fund senior vice president Cathy Schoen, who noted that "other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less".

The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France, Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the US.

Some countries showed dramatic improvement in the periods studied - 1997 and 1998 and again between 2002 and 2003 - outpacing the US, which showed only slight improvement.

White the US ranked 15th of 19 between 1997-98, by 2002-03 it had fallen to last place.

"It is notable that all countries have improved substantially except the US,'' said Ellen Nolte, lead author of the study.

Had the US performed as well as any of the top three industrialised countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths per year, the researchers said.

Wombat · 01-08-2008

Sort of confirms my idea of moving back to Oz when we retire.

tccox · 01-08-2008

Well, that makes me feel a little bit better. My daughter informed us last Saturday she's marrying a nice fellow from Australia and moving there permanently.

drharveys · 01-08-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by tccox

Well, that makes me feel a little bit better. My daughter informed us last Saturday she's marrying a nice fellow from Australia and moving there permanently.

Just make sure there's room in the garage for you to keep a bike there!

I have a feeling you'll be getting pretty adept at finding (relatively) cheap air fares!

LoVel · 01-08-2008

Who ever said the point of the US healthcare system was to save lives. Lets do a study and see in which country the largest number of people involved in health care make the most money. I would be willing to bet the good ol US of A makes a strong run at 1st place.

Tbirdnz · 01-08-2008

Well if the US is slipping we definitely skidding, we were consistently 1st for years, now we're 13th. We have a 'free' social welfare hospital system which has steadily going down the tube. Basically not enough money put into it and doctors and nurses being lured away to other countries where they can make more money, such as the UK.

They're getting our medical staff and we're getting their cops !

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Ride on !

Flyingscott · 01-08-2008

Reading the whole article (you have to pay for it) is a little more helpful. The word used is "amenable" to health care and not "preventable" by health care. There is quiet a big difference between the two.

The United States is unique in many ways: it has a heterogeneous (ethnically and culturally diverse) population unlike most of the other nations listed; about 15 million illegals from poverty stricken third world countries without any real medical care who come to the United States for opportunity and bring lots of health issues with them; about 5 million legal immigrants with much the same problems and minority populations (African American and Latino with high rates of violence with consequential high rates of injury and death).

If illegals are subtracted from the equation, the stats climb into the higher third. Subtract legal immigrants and the U.S. rises further and if the African American and Latino health stats from violence and out of wedlock births are subtracted, the U.S. would be squarely at the top. If, for example, the U.S. citizens who are of similar national origin were compared to the citizens of those nations, the U.S. is at the top.

The problems the United States has is not the quality of health care but rather an inability to control illegals and in stemming the violence in minority communities. To confuse this with quality is not going to bring about improvement in any of these nations including the U.S.

Gretsch · 01-08-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyingscott

Reading the whole article (you have to pay for it) is a little more helpful. The word used is "amenable" to health care and not "preventable" by health care. There is quiet a big difference between the two.

The United States is unique in many ways: it has a heterogeneous (ethnically and culturally diverse) population unlike most of the other nations listed; about 15 million illegals from poverty stricken third world countries without any real medical care who come to the United States for opportunity and bring lots of health issues with them; about 5 million legal immigrants with much the same problems and minority populations (African American and Latino with high rates of violence with consequential high rates of injury and death).

If illegals are subtracted from the equation, the stats climb into the higher third. Subtract legal immigrants and the U.S. rises further and if the African American and Latino health stats from violence and out of wedlock births are subtracted, the U.S. would be squarely at the top. If, for example, the U.S. citizens who are of similar national origin were compared to the citizens of those nations, the U.S. is at the top.

The problems the United States has is not the quality of health care but rather an inability to control illegals and in stemming the violence in minority communities. To confuse this with quality is not going to bring about improvement in any of these nations including the U.S.

Well said. This is why people from around the world come to America for health care.

Tbirdnz · 01-08-2008

Well you can read anything into statistics to suit, I find most of them meaningless. If we discounted all the Pacific Islanders who come into NZ for free medical treatment and OZ could say the same then the stats would skew again.

It's an opportunity for people who cannot obtain medical treatment in their own country to go to more affluent ones, it's a humanitarian gesture by the developed countries not to turn such people away.

We get complaints about residents being delayed operations because of illegals but overall we should be able to cope and do our bit for the region.

Looking at it another way the Black Plague started in Mongolia and swept across Europe, best to try to improve world health where you can.

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Ride on !

steventhechef · 01-08-2008

I am really surprised TBH. Everyone out here thinks the health system is crap and needs an overhaul - pronto - ..

It's funny what you think is good and bad on your own doorstep.

I haven't had a day in hospital (myself) - except when working - since a bike off when I was 18.

The system IMHO seems flawed when taking in to account waiting lists and doctor quality (time spent with patients, overall experience and quals).

I don't complain about but then again I don't use it either..