Vince Boehm reports that, “In 2005 (the latest year data are available), total (U.S.)
- national health expenditures rose 6.9 percent — two times the rate of inflation (1).
· was $2 TRILLION or $6,700 per person (1).
· represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
· is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4 TRILLION in 2015, or 20 percent of GDP (2).”
- Catlin, A, C. Cowan, S. Heffler, et al, “National Health Spending in 2005.” Health Affairs 26:1 (2006): 142-153.
- Borger, C., et al., “Health Spending Projections Through 2015: Changes on the Horizon,” Health Affairs Web Exclusive W61: 22 February 2006
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Vera Sharav
http://www.ahrp.org and http://ahrp.blogspot.com
A report in today’s New York Times (see below) is a reminder of the humanitarian good that medicine can achieve–if healthcare is extricated from the corporate stranglehold that has undermined rather than improved the healthcare of Americans. America ranks #1 in its per capita expenditure on healthcare: $5.274. (This $5,274 is much lower than the 2005 figure cited above [1]. If Catlin’s figures are correct (above), and the rate of increase is constant at 6.9% the true figure for 2007 should be $7656! – Vince)
The US has slipped to 42nd place in international rankings of life expectancy. Americans have an average life expectancy of 77.9 years. http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/13/life.expectancy.ap/index.html
Two decades ago, the US was in 11th place. The downgrade is partially due to the fact that more countries are included in the survey, but most to blame for putting the US behind most industrialized nations are rising health insurance costs, skyrocketing obesity rates, high infant mortality, and racial disparities.
(Andorra, a tiny country between France and Spain, had the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years. We are still far ahead of Swaziland. Vince)
“Something’s wrong here when the country that spends the most on health care is not able to keep up with other countries.” http://www.newser.com/story/5726.html
Independent researchers say America’s poor showing compared to other industrialized democracies results, in part, because of widespread obesity and a lack of health insurance. Indeed, 43 million, 600,000 people were uninsured during the entire year of 2006, and 54 million, 500,000 Americans were uninsured some of the time in 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/washington/26insure.html
Cuba ranks #102 in its per capita expenditure on healthcare: $236. Cubans life expectancy is 77.08.
Yet, Cuba has not only provided free medical care to its own citizens, but beginning in July 2004, Cuba embarked on a program dubbed, Operation Miracle: more than 750,000 people from Latin America have received free treatment for eye conditions like cataracts and glaucoma.
In addition to its humanitarian benefit, an added advantage of the program is that the hospital has been training new eye doctors at an astounding rate of 2,100 this year, half of them surgeons. The hospital’s budget has been increased tenfold and its equipment upgraded. It now has 34 operating theaters with state-of-the-art equipment, including two outfitted for advanced laser surgery techniques. Just this year, Dr. Reynaldo Rios Casas, the director of the Institute of Ophthalmology said, they have performed 394 cornea transplants at the hospital: “Our specialists have an incredible amount of experience. What specialist in the world can do dozens of cornea transplants a year?”
“The campaign against vision loss serves as a poignant advertisement for the benefits of Cuban socialism, as well as an ingenious way to export one of the few things the Cuban state-run economy produces in abundance – doctors.”
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav veracare@ahrp.org 212-595-8974
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THE NEW YORK TIMES November 20, 2007
A Health System’s ‘Miracles’ Come With Hidden Costs By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/world/americas/20havana.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The information herein shall not be considered an endorsement of anyone discontinuing psychiatric drugs. If you are stopping taking medication it is advisable to reduce the dose gradually WITH EXTREME CAUTION, as it is difficult to predict who will have problems withdrawing. It is worth getting as much information and support as you can, and involving your doctor wherever possible. You will find withdrawal information HERE: http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Making+sense/Making+sense+of+coming+off+psychiatric+drugs.htm
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WITHDRAWAL:: Get Peter Lehmann’s book, Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers. This valuable resource comes in US, UK, and German editions.
I, Kathleen Maire Hill, present this information in my capacity as a natural person, exercising my natural rights and freedoms. This information represents my private thoughts and beliefs and has been compiled and expressed for peer-to-peer educational purposes only.
“Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.” Bodie Thoene
“Life is the experience of living.” Kathleen Hill
“(Freedom) is the will to be responsible to ourselves.”
Friedrich Nietzsche – (1844-1900) – Source: Twilight of the Idols, 1888
“Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.” Jean-Paul Sartre
“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.” Marilyn Ferguson
“Alone with one’s conscience there are no alibis!” Tristano Ajmone, President OISM
“Ethical. existence [is] the highest manifestation of spirituality.” ALBERT SCHWEITZER (German physician and theologian, 1875-1965), The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, 1929, trans. by William Montgomery, 1931
A Model Consent Form for Psychiatric Drug Treatment
by David Cohen, Ph.D., and David Jacobs, Ph.D.
http://laingsociety.org/colloquia/polofdiagnosis/modelconsent.htm
How Mercury Causes Brain Neuron Degeneration (5-minute video)
As Gandhi said – First they ignore us, then they laugh at us, and then they attack us. Then we win.
