Since I am half Dutch, talking about the Netherlands and their health care system was very interesting to me. After visiting the Netherlands you can see that increased taxes can be a benefit. Visibly the majority look much healthier than most Americans and their successful social programs have cleaned up the streets, led to great education systems and a strong economy. I think that providing health care for 32 million Americans who currently are not covered could be a positive move as it is more in line with the other 1st world countries. This would be similar to all of Canada receiving coverage that they did not have before. I think that even if taxes increase, in the long term the health of the country will outweigh short term obstacles.
I also know many Canadians that also would like to see a mix of the Canadian and American health care systems in which all would have basic coverage and then be able to buy additional and or more immediate care. This would likely be the penultimate health care system if possible, and would definitely be the fairest system for all levels of society. One issue in Canada is definitely that in many cases it can take a very long time for even people with high incomes to receive health care.
Sept. 17, 2009
Study: 45,000 Uninsured Die a Year
While Debate Continues Over Cost of Insuring Everyone, Harvard Study Links Deaths to Lack of Coverage
VIDEOCongress Grills Big InsuranceExecutives from six of the nation's largest insurers were grilled about their company's policies before members of Congress. Nancy Cordes reports.
SPECIAL REPORTHealth CareThe latest news and analysis on the continuing battle over Barack Obama's health care reform plans.
Having quit his full-time job at a dairy to freelance in the catering business -- gambling he wouldn't need the insurance -- Durate didn't go to the doctor until he could no longer eat. The diagnosis: Stage 4 stomach cancer. Medicaid paid for his surgery last April.
"Would you have been in a different place if you had health insurance?" asked CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod.
"Totally," Durate said. "I would have been able to go to a doctor like maybe last year."
"We found that 45,000 Americans are dying annually, due to lack of health insurance," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.
Woolhandler was part of a team that tracked more than 9,000 people for up to 13 years, comparing the health of those with insurance to those without. After factoring in education and income, smoking, drinking and obesity, researchers found that the uninsured had about a 40 percent higher risk of death, linking 45,000 American deaths a year to lack of insurance. In 1993 it was 25 percent.
Read the full report
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care Reform
"We have lots of good treatments for high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol that can now prevent complications, that can now lengthen our patients' lives, but we can't do anything for our patients if they can't afford to come to our offices," Woolhandler said.
John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis said the study results are exaggerated. Researchers don't know how the uninsured died or if they were uninsured the entire time they were being tracked. But even this critic agrees with the basic premise.
"I think you can't trust the results," Goodman said. "Having said that, we ought to do something for the uninsured."
It's not getting easier even for those who do have insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average cost of a family health insurance policy is now more than $13,000, having more than doubled this decade.
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