Motivation: Identifying Problems

I weighed in two months ago on the healthcare debate, backed by my personal experience with the system. While I'm obviously for more options and reform, let's try to get past the lies and ideology surrounding the debate and look at some facts.

We'll start with the easy stuff-- highlighting problems plaguing the current health and insurance system.
The information listed below is undeniably nonpartisan, backed by solid data. I find these articles extremely sobering.

Cost vs. Care.
From The Washington Post; a truly excellent article: [<----- read it!!]

The United States today devotes 16 percent of its gross domestic product to medical care, more per capita than any other nation in the world. Yet numerous measures indicate the country lags in overall health: It ranks 29th in infant mortality, 48th in life expectancy and 19th out of 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths.

Paperwork and Profit.
From the New England Journal of Medicine; old, dry but enlightening and relevant... can see just where the money goes:

In the United States, health care administration cost $294.3 billion, or $1,059 per capita (Table 1). In Canada, health care administration cost $9.4 billion, or $307 per capita. If the difference of $752 per capita were applied to the 1999 U.S. population, the total excess administrative cost would be $209 billion. After exclusions, administration accounted for 31.0 percent of health care expenditures in the United States, as compared with 16.7 percent of health care expenditures in Canada.

In 1999 U.S. private insurers retained $46.9 billion of the $401.2 billion they collected in premiums. Their average overhead (11.7 percent) exceeded that of Medicare (3.6 percent) and Medicaid (6.8 percent). Overall, public and private insurance overhead totaled $72.0 billion — 5.9 percent of the total health care expenditures in the United States, or $259 per capita (Table 1).

Uninsured + bankruptcy.
From CNNhealth; gaps in coverage... it affects us all (directly and indirectly):

The study, commissioned by the consumer health advocacy group Families USA, found 86.7 million Americans were uninsured at one point during the past two years.

Among the report's key findings:

• Nearly three out of four uninsured Americans were without health insurance for at least six months.

• Almost two-thirds were uninsured for nine months or more.

• Four out of five of the uninsured were in working families.

• People without health insurance are less likely to have a usual doctor and often go without screenings or preventative care.

From a Harvard Medical School study; "one serious illness away from bankruptcy":

Today's health insurance policies -- with high deductibles, co-pays, and many exclusions -- offer little protection during a serious illness. Uncovered medical bills averaged $13,460 for those with private insurance at the start of their illness. People with cancer had average medical debts of $35,878.

Compensation.
From Louisiana Medical News; a snapshot of unpaid professionals:

Right now, hospitals can get some kind of reimbursement from the state for treating uninsured patients, the society’s new president, Dr. Russell Klein, said. But physicians who “answer the call” at the emergency room or admit a patient to a hospital are not reimbursed. “It’s a problem all over the state,” Klein said. “Wherever you have uninsured coming into the hospital for emergency care ... physicians are providing their services for free.” Physicians are not concerned about which pot of money the state taps for the reimbursements, Klein said. Physicians are concerned that some doctors are being unduly burdened for caring for the uninsured.

Soaring malpractice insurance.
From the AAOS; additional costs for patients (after paperwork costs and private insurance profits!):

If the Kessler and McClellan estimates were applied to total U.S. healthcare spending in 2005, the defensive medicine costs would total between $100 billion and $178 billion per year. Add to this the cost of defending malpractice cases, paying compensation, and covering additional administrative costs (a total of $29.4 billion). Thus, the average American family pays an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per year in healthcare costs simply to cover the costs of defensive medicine.

Prescription drugs.
From The New Yorker; long article with numerous specific cases of corruption:

In “The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It” (Random House; $24.95), Marcia Angell offers an even harsher assessment. Angell used to be the editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, which is among the most powerful positions in American medicine, and in her view drug companies are troubled and corrupt. She thinks that they charge too much, engage in deceptive research, produce inferior products, borrow their best ideas from government-funded scientists, and buy the affections of physicians with trips and gifts.

So, to recap:
Americans pay more for health care, but receive far less. Our patchwork of private insurance companies drive up costs through profit and paperwork. Large volumes of uninsured citizens, unable to pay for care, inevitably raise prices for everyone. If you are lucky enough to HAVE insurance (not guaranteed with employment!), your claims may still be denied and one serious health complication will probably push your family into bankruptcy. Doctors live in fear of frivolous lawsuits, occasionally do not receive payment, and are forced to rush through patients. Powerful prescription drug companies commonly mislead the public and sometimes literally write legislation in their favor.
If I've missed anything (all you physical therapists, nurses...), please let me know.

Claiming we don't need reform is laughable and, honestly, dangerously negligent.
Obviously something has to be done to address these staggering problems.