It was with some amusement but also concern that I recently came upon a letter in my local newspaper which advised that the U.S. government should not fiddle with "the world's best medical system." Here we go again, I thought: with attitude and ignorance trumping reality.
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If our political advisor had taken one minute to Google up a readily available check of the World Health Organization's rankings of the national healthcare systems to support the medical needs of their citizens, he would find France rated number one, and such as San Marco at number 3, Oman at 8, Morocco at 29, and the United States at 37, immediately following Costa Rica.
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Another index of the adequacy of a national healthcare system is the comparative life expectancy of its citizens. Here per the Washington Post: "Countries that surpass the United States include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands." In this index, the United States ranked 38th, just behind Cuba.
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Apparently there are no comparative national indices in categories such as Chest-Beating or Fact-Finding, but available evidence suggests that our fellow citizens would rate internationally higher in the first of these and much lower in the second.
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Why is this important that we trouble to gainsay ignorance, partisan persuasion and misguided patriotic bombast? Because, of course, this disregard of facts is a major impediment to making the best political choices and in providing the necessary instruction to our government in how best to serve the interests of us citizens.
