[Platt] To my U.S. friends: I don't know about you, but it doesn't look to me that universal health care is the panacea for all our system's ills that some make it out to be.
[Arlo] A news report released by a combined effort of several of the National Academies in 2006 found that: "Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every year, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The extra medical costs of treating drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone conservatively amount to $3.5 billion a year, and this estimate does not take into account lost wages and productivity or additional health care costs, the report says." It continues... "Medication errors encompass all mistakes involving prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, vitamins, minerals, or herbal supplements. Errors are common at every stage, from prescription and administration of a drug to monitoring of the patient's response, the committee found. It estimated that on average, there is at least one medication error per hospital patient per day, although error rates vary widely across facilities. Not all errors lead to injury or death, but the number of preventable injuries that do occur -- the committee estimated at least 1.5 million each year -- is sobering, the report says. Studies indicate that 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals. Another 800,000 occur in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 occur just among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics. The committee noted that these are likely underestimates." The release report is available here (links to the report itself are available, but it looks like it is not free): http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11623 Its evident that both systems are fraught with the same difficulties, but the underlying question remains, do we let the economic market determine who lives and who dies? Do we let the poor die off and "decrease the surplus population"? Or do we move towards a health care system that affords all our citizens access to health care? We may always have problems enacting any system, whether it be our current one or theirs, but I'd rather err on the side that values human life above economic wealth. Social darwinism? No, thanks. I prefer the valuation of human life, and the increased freedoms afforded to all, by a healthcare system that treats each person as a unique, valuable, worthy patient. Having said this, I'm not participating in the same tired old "debate". moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
