There are many reasons for our healthcare spending and for the discrepancies in our health versus other countries. The most important effect on out of control health care spendings is due to an inappropriate fixation ib interventional care rather than effective prevention and chronic management (said by a practicing medical doctor). However, this has very little to do with the health discrepancies. That particular nut probably has to do with our increasingly unhealthy lifestyle.
There is an enormous amount of distortion from both sides of the health care debate. While there are serious problems in American healthcare and lifestyle, in general people are living longer. They are not, however, living longer at the rate of other countries.
Second, statistics are often distorted and when comparisons are made between countries it is the equivalent of comparing apples to oranges. One example , the higher infant mortality rate of this country has to do with a substantially different way of tallying the statistics. To be brief, we tend to overestimate using our definition and much of the world tends to underestimate by using another definition.
This however, doesn't address the primary question- namely- how to pay for the operation. Bush has a valid point that increasing governmental subsidy may prove ineffective. Even should we have universal coverage, this is not likely to reduce costs without serious reorganization of how the system is delivered. Contrary to popular belief, administrative overhead doesn't swallow nearly the amount of money that it is credited for swallowing. To move immediately to a Universal, Government Run System would bankrupt this country in a few years. While government pays for much of healthcare at this moment, they do not pay for all of it (nor are they equiped to accept that burden). It is a very complicated question and I hope that Mr. Noah is correct in saying that we might just have a serious discussion of it.
