> Tim Churches wrote:
> > Despite having one of the highest per-capita spends on healthcare in the
> > world, the US ranks in the bottom half (and often right at the bottom)
> > of all OECD countries on just about every health and health outcome
> > measure, on a population basis. Sure, for wealthier people in the US who
> > can afford good health insurance, health outcomes are excellent, but
> > those people represent about 50% of the total population. The rest of
> > the population have really very bad outcomes, so the overall results are
> > remarkably poor given the overall expenditure. And even amongst the
> > insured, the quality and nature of the care is very patchy, due to the
> > incredibly fragmented nature of the US healthcare system.
> Where do you get your numbers? The percentage that isn't covered is
> much smaller, I believe, particularly since people who haven't applied
> and thus don't show up on a list are, in fact, covered. The quality
> of healthcare is patchy, but not necessarily based on income, but on
> locality.
The healthcare insurance coverage is a figure I recall from a CDC Health
People report, probably 5 years old or so - but it is at work. I'll look
it up on Monday. The population-based health outcomes are documented in
many places - again I'll look for a summary in some OECD reports on Monday.
> But most people I know would much rather have their
> operation in the US rather than going to another country for the same
> or similar procedure.
I'm just guessing, but could that be because most people you know are
Americans?
> The IT problem of rigid stove pipes of proprietary systems contributes
> to the problem but
> probably isn't the biggest contributing factor, in my opinion. I'm not
> sure how FOSS
> works in countries that have nationalized healthcare. Aren't their
> requirements that
> one use the "national IT system"?
Or at least a small number of approved systems. That is certainly the
way the UK NHS is heading, for better or worse. None (or very few) of
those systems are FOSS, though. But typically even if health care is
funded centrally by govt, administration is done on a regional basis and
that often permits (for better or for worse) quite a lot of IT
diversity. Even completely centrlist administrations try to avoid
complete monocultures in IT, especially where commercial suppliers are
involved, for fear of being price-gouged.
Tim C
SPONSORED LINKS
| Software distribution | Salon software | Medical software |
| Software association | Software jewelry | Software deployment |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "openhealth" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
