[lbo-talk] Another economist says the US Health Care "System" works just fine. No need for any changey changiness.

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 22 11:02:02 PDT 2009


Reminds me of the question that always runs through my head when I see the slogan on a Chicago Police car, "We serve and protect." Who, I think, do they serve and respect. Andie

--- On Tue, 9/22/09, M <myles.sussman at yahoo.com> wrote:


> From: M <myles.sussman at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Another economist says the US Health Care "System" works just fine. No need for any changey changiness.
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 12:48 PM
> This will be blasted through the
> right-wing megaphone by this weekend, I expect. Already
> being reported by the "liberal" New York Times...
>
> They fail to note in the abstract that most people
> suffering from prostate cancer are on Medicare, the United
> States' single-payer system (more than 8 of 10 men with
> prostate cancer are over 65, I believe)
> I wonder how they identified breast cancer victims who lack
> health insurance and never visited a doctor to get a checkup
> or screening.
>
> Anyway this will go into the "toxic sludge is good for you"
> category of "research", IMO.
>
> http://www.nber.org/papers/w15213.pdf
>
> Samuel H. Preston, Jessica Y. Ho
> NBER Working Paper No. 15213
> Issued in August 2009
> NBER Program(s):   AG    HC
>
> The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of
> publications like this.  You can sign up to receive the
> NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.
>
> Life expectancy in the United States fares poorly in
> international comparisons, primarily because of high
> mortality rates above age 50. Its low ranking is often
> blamed on a poor performance by the health care system
> rather than on behavioral or social factors. This paper
> presents evidence on the relative performance of the US
> health care system using death avoidance as the sole
> criterion. We find that, by standards of OECD countries, the
> US does well in terms of screening for cancer, survival
> rates from cancer, survival rates after heart attacks and
> strokes, and medication of individuals with high levels of
> blood pressure or cholesterol. We consider in greater depth
> mortality from prostate cancer and breast cancer, diseases
> for which effective methods of identification and treatment
> have been developed and where behavioral factors do not play
> a dominant role. We show that the US has had significantly
> faster declines in mortality from these two diseases
> than comparison countries. We conclude that the low
> longevity ranking of the United States is not likely to be a
> result of a poorly functioning health care system. 
>
>
>      
>
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>



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