I feel better already

I don't know if you saw it today, but there was a study released today that compared the health of Americans to the british. The results can best be summed up in one line:

"Americans are much sicker than the English"

Yuo take a few more quotes from the study and it really starts to make you wonder:

• Americans pay more than twice as much for their medical care as the Brits, $5,274 a year per person in the United States vs. $2,164 in England
• Life expectancy is shorter in the U.S. than in the United Kingdom. More than 20 countries have greater life expectancy than the U.S. Now there is evidence that disease rates also are higher.
• Even though much more money is spent on health care in the United States, the emphasis is different. In England, much more attention is paid on primary care and making sure everyone gets basic medical care.

So what does this mean to me? It means we are screwing ourselves. We are paying way too much -more and more and more every year. We are not getting much in return. We are killing ourselves and our children.

Now, I can hear the cries of outrage! This is capitalism at its best! The English have socialist medicine - we could never stand for that! They have to wait months for inferior care!

Oh really?

Maybe it is time we think about this a bit more rationally. Maybe, as one of my friends recently stated: maybe medicine is one of those things (like teaching and police work) where the money is NOT the point. Maybe we should have a little empathy and care for those around us.