A new study, reported in the NY Times says,
Americans 55 and over are much sicker than their British counterparts even though the United States spends more than twice as much per person on health care, British researchers said.
The study, published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, reported
"Middle-aged to older U.S. residents have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, lung disease and cancer than their English counterparts."
The JAMA article reported that the US spends per person, on health care, $5274 per year, compared to Britain's $2164, which covers all people, universally through their government run National health service.
But the differences between socio-economic groups were so stark that the most educated and highest income people in the US had rates of heart disease and diabetes similar to those at the bottom of the rung income and education-wise in Britain.
The study found that diabetes is twice as common in the US, that high blood pressure is 10% greater in the US and that US patients are more obese. Hold the Twinkies!!
So.... there collapses one of the biggest arguments against single payer universal healthcare. All the money we're spending here is going to huge payments to healthcare executives and the job being done to keep Americans health is not worth the urine sample bottle it is delivered to us in.
It's time to throw out the middlemen and turn the US healthcare system into a national plan. Americans deserve to have better than what they are getting.