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Health care reform waylaid by political corruption
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Health care reform affects us all (AP Photo)
Why is the U.S. the most backward of all developed nations in terms of health care? And what can we do about it? According to a WHO report comparing eight top industrialized nations, the U.S. spends nearly twice the amount of the other countries on health care, yet has the lowest life expectancy and infant mortality rate.
The percentage of health care costs paid by the governments in these nations range from 67.5 to 84, with the major exception of the U.S., where the government covers only 44.7 percent of costs. So U.S. citizens pay significantly more for health care overall, yet less is covered by the government, and the U.S. has some of the worst health care statistics in the developed world. Hmm...
A report by the Commonwealth Fund comparing Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom is also quite revealing. Here's what the overview of this key report has to say:
Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. This report ... includes data from surveys of patients, as well as information from primary care physicians about their medical practices and views of their countries' health systems.
Compared with five other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom—the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. The U.S. is the only country in the study without universal health insurance coverage.
Part of the reason for this dismal news is that many U.S. politicians on both sides of the fence have significant investments in the pharmaceutical and health care industries. A recent Washington Post article showed that key lawmakers currently drafting legislation on health care reform are heavily invested in the industry.
This, of course, is a conflict of interest. Some would call it political corruption. Yet as the large majority of our political representatives are quite wealthy and invested in numerous industries for which they pass legislation, this kind of corruption is a natural outcome. Here's how the Post article starts:
Almost 30 key lawmakers helping draft landmark health-care legislation have financial holdings in the industry, totaling nearly $11 million worth of personal investments in a sector that could be dramatically reshaped by this summer's debate.The list of members who have personal investments in the corporations that will be affected by the legislation -- which President Obama has called this year's highest domestic priority -- includes Congress's most powerful leaders and a bipartisan collection of lawmakers in key committee posts. Their total health-care holdings could be worth $27 million, because congressional financial disclosure forms released yesterday require reporting of only broad ranges of holdings rather than precise values of assets.
Sadly, corruption of this sort in the U.S. is par for the course. Yet thanks to the power of the Internet and caring citizens like you and me, all of this is gradually beginning to change. Information like that mentioned above, which in the past was kept quiet as much as possible by those involved, can now be spread rapidly to large numbers of people.
Websites like examiner.com allow caring citizens to spread the word more rapidly than ever before. Together, we are forcing our political representatives to listen and to take greater accountability for their actions.
The box immediately below provides several ideas on what you can do to stop political corruption and bring real health care reform to our nation. We also invite you to comment below and let us know what you think. Should political representatives be allowed to invest in industries which they regulate? How can we effectively change the rampant corruption in our current political system?
What you can do:
- Inform your media and political representatives of this important information on political corruption in health care. To contact those close to you, click here. Urge them to tackle the topic of rampant conflict of interest in Congress on health and other key issues.
- Learn more about corruption in health care and how it can directly impact your health in this powerful lesson from the free Insight Course.
- Read concise summaries of revealing major media reports on health available here.
- Visit our Information Center at www.WantToKnow.info/healthinformation.
- Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon just below the title of this article, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference.
Fred Burks served as personal language interpreter to Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Gore, and other top dignitaries in secret meetings. As part of an international network of researchers and news analysts, Fred obtains and disseminates key, reliable information about powerful, yet little-known forces which shape our world. For more, see articles and links in the right column of this page.
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