truthful politics

Researchers at the Kellogg School mentioned that “medical expenses contribute to less than 20 percent of all bankruptcies.” To read the entire article, click on Medical Costs Contribute To Fewer Than One In Five Bankruptcies, Say Kellogg Management School Researchers.

Researchers at Northwestern University mentioned that “medical bills are a contributing factor in just 17 percent of personal bankruptcies.” To read the entire article, click on Medical Bankruptcy: Myth vs. Fact.

Factcheck.org had the following statistics:

• A Harvard Study from 2005 mentioned 46.2% of bankruptcies attributed to medical reasons
• American Bankruptcy Institute in 1996 mentioned 57% of filers said medical reasons were the major cause of their bankruptcy

To read the entire article, click on What is the percentage of total personal bankruptcies caused by health care bills?

NPR in 2002 mentioned the following statistics of households contacted by a collection agency in the past year:

• 27% of households earning less than $25,000 annually
• 12% of households earning between $25,000 and $50,000 annually
• 4% of households earning greater than $50,000 annually

To read the entire article, click on NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll on Health Care.

The World Salaries Group compared general physician salaries in different countries. The net monthly income in the U.S. for a general physician was $8,189, in Taiwan, $5,388, in the U.K. $4,874, and in Japan, $4,685.

To read the entire article, click on General Physician Salaries – International Comparison.

According to Robert J. Cihak, MD, and Merrill Matthews, Jr., PhD mentioned the following:

• “A recent flu epidemic in Toronto expanded the waiting times to see a family physician to five to six weeks.”
• “In Canada, 121 patients waiting for heart bypass surgery were removed from the waiting list because their condition had worsened to the point that they could no longer survive the surgery.”

To read the entire article, click on Health Care Quality: Would It Survive a Single-Payer System?.

Pat Boone of Newsmax.com in December of 2007 mentioned “the Canadian Supreme Court…ruled in June 2005 that their health system was so bad it actually violates Canadians’ basic human rights! And 12 percent of Canadian physicians and 4 percent of nurses believe they’ve had patients die due to healthcare waiting lines!”

To read the entire article, click on Universal Healthcare Is Unhealthy.

Forest Opine mentioned “Vancouver’s Richmond hospital had 40% of patients waiting for three months or more even at its most efficient, for elective surgery.”

To read the entire article, click on Just Say No to Universal Health Care, Yes to HSAs.

The American College of Physicians mentioned a report from The Commonwealth Fund. “The report noted that insured patients in the United States have rapid access to specialized care. Overall, Germany ranked first on access.”

To read the entire article, click on Achieving a High-Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

Click on the chart below to see an enlarged, clearer chart.

In the July/August 2007 issue of Health Affairs, a comparison of waiting times was performed in countries with universal health care:

• Australia: median national waiting time for all patients admitted for surgery from waiting lists was 29 days in 2004-05, up from 27 days in 2000-01
• Canada: median self-reported waiting times were about four weeks for a specialist visit, three weeks for a selected non-emergency diagnostic test, and four weeks for nonemergency surgery
• England: number waiting more than 6 months for inpatient treatment fell from about 265,000 in March 2000 to about 12,000 in November 2005 and number waiting more than 13 weeks for outpatient treatment fell from about 390,000 in March 2000 to about 40,000 in September 2005
• New Zealand: number waiting over 6 months for a specialist assessment fell from about 45,000 in 2000 to about 24,000 in 2005 and number waiting over 6 months for treatment fell from about 30,000 in 2000 to about 6,000 in 2005
• Wales: number of outpatients waiting over 6 months fell from 83,878 patients in October 2002 to 68,845 patients in March 2004 and number of outpatients waiting over 18 months fell from 16,641 in October 2002 to 6,204 in March 2004 and number of inpatients waiting over 18 months fell from 5,964 in September 2003 to 1,401 in March 2004

To view additional charts and details, click on The Commonwealth Fund.

Full citation for the Health Affairs article:
Sharon Willcox, Mary Seddon, Stephen Dunn, Rhiannon Tudor Edwards, Jim Pearse, and Jack V. Tu
Measuring And Reducing Waiting Times: A Cross-National Comparison Of Strategies
Health Affairs, July/August 2007; 26(4): 1078-1087.

To read the entire article, click on Measuring And Reducing Waiting Times: A Cross-National Comparison Of Strategies.

T.R. Reid of National Public Radio mentioned the following:

• “Taiwan has the lowest administrative costs in world: less than 2 percent.”
• “No one goes bankrupt because of medical bills.”

The entire article may be found by clicking on Taiwan Takes Fast Track to Universal Health Care.

Sabrina Shankman of ProPublica in October 2009 listed the current U.S. health care public options:

• Tricare
• Veteran Health Administration
• Indian Health Service
• Healthcare Group of Arizona
• Medicare
• Medicaid.

To read the entire article, click on Grading the Public Options That Already Exist.