THE DAILY BLADE: Obama: “Our Healthcare System Is Broken.” Oh,Really?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), life expectancy in the U.S. has grown nearly 1½ years over the past decade, and is now at an all-time-high of just under 78 years, in large part due to the death rate from heart disease dropping nearly 5 percent in 2007, and the death rate from cancer falling nearly 2 percent. Heart disease and cancer together account for nearly half of fatalities in the U.S.
The CDC notes that 30 countries outpace the U.S. on life expectancy – most notably Japan, where life expectancy for children born in 2007 is 83. However, there is an explanation for this. Chicago Tribune Columnist points out that “[w]e are 12 times more likely than the Japanese to be murdered and nearly twice as likely to be killed in auto wrecks.” He adds:
In their 2006 book, "The Business of Health," economists Robert L. Ohsfeldt and John E. Schneider set out to determine where the U.S. would rank in life span among developed nations if homicides and accidents are factored out. Their answer? First place.
That discovery indicates our health-care system is doing a poor job of preventing shootouts and drunk driving but a good job of healing the sick. All those universal-care systems in Canada and Europe may sound like Health Heaven, but they fall short of our model when it comes to combating life-threatening diseases.
Some of those foreign systems are great, as long as you don't get sick. Samuel Preston and Jessica Ho of the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania examined survival rates for lung, breast, prostate, colon and rectum cancers in 18 countries and found that Americans fared best.
The U.S. also excelled on other measures, such as surviving heart attacks for more than a year. Why? Because our doctors and patients don't take no for an answer. The researchers attribute the results to "wider screening and more aggressive treatment." Another factor is that we get quicker access to new cancer drugs than anyone else.
In a post on the Serious Medicine Strategy blog Jim Pinkerton, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and a FOX News political analyst, warns: “[L]et's be careful about pulling apart the system we have. Most of all, let's not confuse the minutiae of ‘health insurance policy’ with the bigger picture of the health and well being of Americans.”
A New Form Of Tax Avoidance
Although most people still buy from big tobacco, the movement took off in April when the tax on cigarettes went up 62 cents to $1.01 a pack. Large tax increases were also imposed on other tobacco products, and tobacco companies upped prices even more to compensate for lost sales. …
Cigarettes cost an average of $4.35 a pack, home growers can make that amount for about 30 cents.
For government types who like to use taxes to further social engineering goals - for instance, inducing people to quit smoking by making cigarettes prohibitively expensive – this should be a wake-up call. Where there’s a will (or, in this case, lack of will) there’s a way.
Of course, if this homegrown tobacco trend takes off, the government’s next move will be to tax tobacco plants (“
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street/If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat …)In Memoriam
Rose Friedman, December 1910 – August 18, 2009
Robert Novak, Feb. 26, 1931 - August 18, 2009
Don Hewitt, Dec. 14, 1922 – August 19, 2009
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