On Sat, 6 Aug 2005, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> Statistics hobbyists out there: let's wake up. There's no good reason
> to point out that the US "spends more money on health care" than, say,
> Canada. Because there's not much in the way of "average care" being
> consumed in the health care market, there's not much point in talking
> about what an "average consumer spends" (or has spent for her).
>
> Being sick is not an equal opportunity employer; talking about averages
> is dumb.
>
> /jordan
I agree: we should look at total cost to society, not the "average" consumer. There is a mountain of data that demonstrates the massive cost/benefit ratio of preventative care (e.g., prenatal care, hypertension screening, cancer screening). Given that most uninsured people do not receive this preventative care, and only go to the emergency room when they are extremely ill, health care costs for our society as a whole are substantially higher than for any other industrialized nation.
--I think this is perhaps the greatest threat to public health in the U. S.: because health is a commodity, we only buy it if we think we "need" it. However, few of us have the expertise to determine, based on scientific research, whether or not we need (say) a prostate exam at age 50. The advantage of universal health care is that people are more likely to take advantage of preventative care that improves their health and lowers overall health care costs.
Miles