Health Care Hodgepodge

Amenable Mortality

Amenable mortality is defined as a body count of people who die due to a lack of "timely and effective health care" and is a useful statistic when comparing different countries health care systems. The higher the amenable mortality, the more the health care system is failing.

According to a British study done in 1997-1998, as reported by Consumer Reports, the US ranked 15th out of the 19 countries they looked at. When they redid their study again for 2002-2003, they found that the US had fallen to last place. The current rankings are as follows:

If the US reaches the average of 18 other countries, up to 75,000 deaths would be saved every year. If the U.S. ranked in the top three, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths per year.

So who how can anyone claim that the US has the best system on Earth?

Prescription Drug Commercials

As a quick follow up to an earlier post on big pharma, it looks like Congress may ban or more tightly regulate TV commercials for prescription medications. Personally, I think this is a great idea because, like certain financial instruments, some things are too complicated to be marketed directly to the general public. It should be a doctor recommending a medication to their patient, not the company who stands to profit of off it.

What most people don't know is that The United States is one of only two countries that permit direct-to-consumer drug advertisements, the other being New Zealand.

Brave New Films

Robert Greenwald just released a new video, you can watch it below, exposing the health care industry's massive profits and executive compensations at BraveNewFilms.org. He also set up the website sickforprofit.com that has some other unbelievable information.