Is this a shock? No. This information has been out here for a while. As long as the insurance companies in this country have the strangle hold of the U.S. citizens, it will always be like this. Getting sick in this country has become unaffordable. The Democrats in Congress can try to water down a bill, do it at your own risk starting in 2010. People voted for change not increments. This is 2009, not 1993.
As Congress presses forward with landmark legislation to revamp the nation's health-care system, lawmakers are grappling with a troubling question:
Are Americans dying too soon? The answer is yes. When it comes to "preventable deaths" -- an array of illnesses and injuries that should not kill at an early age -- the United States trails other industrialized nations and has been falling further behind over the past decade.
Although the United States now spends $2.4 trillion a year on medical care -- vastly more per capita than comparable countries -- the nation ranks near the bottom on premature deaths caused by illnesses such as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers and pneumonia, according to research by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund published in the journal Health Affairs.
During last week's marathon health-care debate in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) bemoaned the findings.
"All of these countries have much lower costs than we do," he said, pointing to a giant blue chart showing the United States in last place. "And they have higher quality outcomes than ours." read more here...
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