In his column “Health-care solutions need investigating,” (Globe, June 19), Konrad Heid asks, “Why is there suddenly such an urgency to reform health care here in the United States?” Well, here are some points to ponder:
First, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in its “2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers” found that, “Nearly 40 percent of consumers have expressed discontent with the status quo, rating the U.S. health-care system a D or an F.” The World Health Organization (WHO), in 2000, ranked the U.S. health care system as first in cost, 37th in overall performance, and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations in the study). In a 2006 study, WHO reported that the U.S. ranked 43rd in adult mortality, 40th in infant mortality and 30th in life expectancy.
But, our current health-care system has other consequences too. According to a “HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals” study, an average of 195,000 people are killed by hospitals each year due to “potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors.” And, a 2004 report from the Institute of Medicine notes that, “Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States.”
I think Dr. Quentin Young of the Physicians for a National Health Program puts it best: “The paradox is that the costliest health system in the world performs so poorly. We waste one-third of every health care dollar on insurance bureaucracy and profits while two million people go bankrupt annually and we leave 45 million uninsured.”
I think the real debate here is whether government has an ethical duty to provide health care to its citizens or whether health care more properly belongs on a profit-and-loss statement. Every other highly industrialized nation in the world has settled on the former. Anyone willing to bet that Congress will throw our free-market system under the bus for the sake of universal health care?
Herb Van Fleet
Tulsa and
former Joplin resident
Opinion
Voices: Health care
- Opinion
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Our View: Victims should come first
Millions of dollars in donations have poured in from around the world since the May 22, 2011, tornado. Those donations represent money from lemonade stands, charity auctions, corporate gifts and celebrity checks, just to name a few. In fact, one year later donations continue to come to Joplin.
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Beth Meeker, guest columnist: Same-sex marriage battle a quest for equal rights
I would like to take a moment to reply to guest columnist Anson Burlingame’s, “The Marriage Debate” (Globe, May 13).
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Sunday Forum: 2012 graduation speakers key on tornado, mall school and president’s visit
Editor’s note: In addition to speeches by President Barack Obama and Gov. Jay Nixon, Joplin High School’s top students addressed graduates, faculty, parents and other guests packed into the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center on the Missouri Southern State University campus. Following are the text of those speeches.
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Geoff Caldwell, guest columnist: Pack mentality takes truth as a casualty
President Obama’s Joplin graduation speech Monday showed that while there’s the political “right,” there’s also a very active “rabid” political right.
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Your View: ‘Study’ can mean anything
A few evenings ago, I watched a television program on the science of marriage.
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Our View: Support for museum
How can you tell the story of Joplin without the accounts of its mining history?
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Our View: Finding middle ground
The G-8 summit held last week in Camp David ended as expected.
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Anson Burlingame, guest columnist: Class of 2012 upholds character, hope
My oldest granddaughter was part of the class of 2012 from Joplin High School, and I attended the ceremony on Monday night.
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Scott Charton, guest columnist: 'Deadline in Disaster' film a story about storytellers
Local newspapers are at their best when they help their communities confront, understand, endure and overcome shared challenges.
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Our View: Make voting easiser
This year’s ballot will not include a proposed constitutional amendment that photo identification be required at the polls in Missouri. Good.
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Our View: Victims should come first
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