Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Don't they have insurance?

I was reading a blogger today who was enjoying Britain's health system and couldn't imagine why Americans didn't want it. Maybe it's these stats:
    "According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, there were 26.6 MRI machines in the U.S. per million people in 2004. In Canada, there were 4.9 such devices, while Britain enjoyed 5. For every 100,000 Americans, 2006 saw 436.8 receive angioplasties. Among Canadians, that figure was 135.9, while only 93.2 Britons per 100,000 got that cardiac procedure.

    Maybe that’s why, among American men, heart-attack deaths in 2004 stood at 53.8 per 100,000. In Canada, 58.3 men per 100,000 died of cardiac arrest, while coronaries buried 69.5 of every 100,000 British males.

    The fatality rate for breast cancer, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis and Lancet Oncology, is 25 percent in the U.S., 28 percent in Canada, and 46 percent in Great Britain.

    Among those diagnosed with prostate cancer, 19 percent die of the disease in America. In Canada, 25 percent of such patients succumb to this disease. And in Great Britain — an Anglophone NATO member and America’s closest ally — prostate cancer kills 57 percent of those who contract it. That is triple the American fatality rate." Deroy Murdock
In comparing life expectancy you need to start at about age 40--that's when we start falling apart, and that's when you need decent medical care.

1 comment:

Michael Halberstadt said...

Maybe we Americans should be even more impressed by Britain and the UK. After all, if they live longer as a whole and spend about half of what we do, what's not to like? If they can do it with fewer MRI's we need to be taking notes!