Health Care: What Other Countries Do Better

Listen to the whole interview:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2009/08/24/segments/139108
T.R. Reid, veteran foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and the author of The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care (Penguin Press, 2009), follows up on his Frontline reporting with a book about what the U.S. can learn from other industrialized countries about healthcare. Plus: Freelance journalist Erica offers her first-hand account with the health care systems in the U.S. and U.K.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• health
• care
• T.R.
• Reid
• WNYC
• Brian
• Lehrer
• Andrea
• Bernstein

[givebirthathome]

Google iatrogenic death for more information. This is not an anti-healthcare comment, just fyi:

In comparison to 20,000 deaths from lack of healthcare, at present we have-

ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:

12,000 -----unnecessary surgery (8)

7,000 -----medication errors in hospitals (9)

20,000 -----other errors in hospitals (10)

80,000 -----infections in hospitals (10)

106,000 ----non-error, negative effects of drugs (2)

[ItsJustARide314]

dacter

[DurienLevie]

Healthcare industry in the US delineates class structure in how healthcare is doled out. Best in world for top, decent for middle, bad for bottom middle, non-existent for those below the poverty line. Attitudes toward HC in the US expose Social Darwinist beliefs among the greedy. Remember TR, that universal, aka. single-payer will come state by state. Vermont First.

[ABL36]

They can;t afford to see a DACTER ?! LOL

[Xerxes4242]

If checked, capitalism does just fine. Greed needs to be checked with compassion.

[indierock79]

morganbath... your comment doesn't make sense. please explain yourself better. mortality rates are facts, americans are a generous culture is an opinion. so that is comparing apples to oranges.

[morganbath]

Why do I keep hearing people say "of course Americans are generous people" ? He contradicts himself. In one speech he gave I saw him equate a countries morality with its health care system which if true is a damning judgment on this supposed "generosity", but some time later back pedals away from his own argument by seeming to saying "but of course Americans are generous and please go buy my book."

"I'm generous but .. " is about as beleivable as "I'm not racist but ..".

Actions speak louder?

[kannibees]

this is so sad.

capitalism cannot be reformed ,

it must be destroyed.

[givebirthathome]

We *do not* get great medicine in many areas of treatment, although you win more friends saying things like that.

I do want to see healthier Americans, and support for Americans who need it, the question that should be asked is how much less of that support should come from medical professionals and in what areas.

Dr. Lewis Mehl has shown that home birth results in better outcomes for infants. Holland with great statistics, supports home birth. The US does not.