Frontline: Health Care

I just finished watching Frontline's "Sick Around the World" and it compelled me to blog. The basic premise is that the United States is uber rich and spends more money than any other country (per capita) on health care, yet our care is no better than other wealthy nations and a full 16%, or 47 million, people in our nation have no coverage at all. So we spend significantly more and get significantly less. For a nation that prides itself on being market-savvy capitalists we sure are getting swindled.

The show's narrator takes the audience on a trip around the world to five countries--Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland--where everyone receives health care, no one goes bankrupt from medical bills (in the United States it is estimated that 750,000 people go bankrupt every year due to medical costs), they spend less on health care, and the care is equal to or better in quality as compared to ours.

Don't get me wrong, none of these systems is without flaws, but the big takeaway from the film is that our system has vastly more problems than many other countries. We could cover more people for less money with equal care.

The show is fun to watch and, at one hour, it goes quick. Check it out and you will be yearning for change.