10 Surprising Facts about American Health Care

[-Cp]

This is for all the IDIOTS who think we should move to socialized health care like Canada and Europe:

Fact No. 1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.

Fact No. 2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher than in the United States.

Fact No. 3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries. Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons and 17 percent of Italians receive them.

Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians. Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer:

Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.

More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).

Fact No. 5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent). Conversely, white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as “fair or poor.”

Read the rest of the facts here:
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/25/10-surprising-facts-about-american-health-care/#more-4329

[glockmail]

It sounds like we really need health care reform to spread disease around not just wealth.

[Monkeybone]

a lot of the cancer things are just wait time as well. where as we get on the ball and get it taken care of. other places it really doesn't help when your appointments are months apart.

[Jagger]

As a highly skilled Special Forces Cancer Epidemiologist, I explain the data this way: In the U.S., we conduct far more tests, which turn up many more cancers. That in turn leads to higher survival rates because we wind up treating some cancers at an earlier stage. It probably even saves some lives that otherwise would have been lost to the disease.

However, there's a downside to all those tests. They have relatively high false positive rates. In other words, they turn up minor cancers that may never have progressed to full-blown neoplasms. Yet, they are treated anyway since determining which ones will progress is impossible at that early stage.

[glockmail]

As a highly skilled Special Forces Cancer Epidemiologist.... :lol: Gotta hand it to you for humor on this one. Best line of the morning! :beer:

[sgtdmski]

Somebody get me a shovel, **it is getting high in here.

Survival rates have nothing to do with with the number of tests. It is the access for the very basic of tests. Breast cancer is diagnosis from a mammogram and confirmed by the CA antigen blood test. Prostate cancer is diagnosised and confirmed by the PSA test. Simple test that are available on demand in the US. In Britain and Canada, they are not available on demand and are usually only ordered if and when the patient is showing symptoms of an unexplained illness.

Nice try. But the fact remains, that most people can get these test in this country with no hassle and no need for a doctor to order them. Whereas, in the nationalized healthcare countries, the doctor is needed to order them.

No doctor in his right mind will treat a cancer unless they are sure of the diagnosis. That is why there are confirmation tests in place. Nice try at bsing your way through an excuse to make the nationalized systems look good.

I look forward to you explaining away the CT and MRI numbers.

dmk