Larry Beinhart’s Body Politic: Of Health, Wealth, and Stealth

by Larry Beinhart, June 25, 2009

There is currently a debate on the future of America’s health care.

There are two sides to the debate. On one side there’s sanity, humanity, the numbers, and America’s economic well-being. On the other side there’s the insurance industry.

The insurance industry has allies: money, the Republican Party, members of the Democratic Party who take money from the insurance industry, and the whole host of loons who believe the mythology that anything that private companies do is good and everything that government does is bad.

Reality check. Let’s go to the numbers.

In 2005, the United States spent $6,041 per capita on health care—more than double the median per capita spending ($2,922) of the 30 industrialized countries that form the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The US spent 15.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), compared with the OCED median of 9.1 percent of GDP.

That’s worth repeating. In terms of median numbers:

In the US we spend twice as much per person as other modern, industrialized countries. As a country, 40 percent more of our GDP goes to health care spending than in other modern, industrialized countries. Do we get better health care by spending so much more? The answer, by virtually every measure, is no.

Life Expectancy: The US ranks number 46. (CIA World Fact Book)

Infant Mortality Rate: The US ranks number 41. (CIA World Fact Book)

Healthy Life Expectancy: Of 14 OECD nations, the US ranks 14th.

Patients Seeing a Regular Doctor: Of OECD nations, the US ranks last. Only 16 percent of us see a doctor on a regular basis. We have fewer doctors, nurses, and hospital beds than the average of other OECD nations.

Then there are things that we—here in America—don’t usually consider health issues. But they are.

Adult obesity: Obesity means more than merely being overweight. It means so overweight as to affect your health in other ways, like heart disease and diabetes. Of 14 OECD nations, the US ranks 14th—indeed, America has twice the number of obese people as the other countries. Except for England, where we’re only 30 percent more obese than the Brits.

Sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight.

Teenage girls having babies: The rate of teen pregnancy is more than three times higher than the average of other industrial nations. Six times higher than most of them.