What "Everybody" knows about the US Healthcare system...

Now this may come as a shock, but the Commission is not against improving our Healthcare system, and is in fact open to a number of the changes that are being suggested...

But the root of the 108Warren Commission is skepticism... and the Commission is always skeptical of things that "everyone knows are true."

"Everyone knows" that European Healthcare is better than what we have here in the US -- if you have any doubts, just look at life expectancy -- a kid born today in the US has a shorter life expectancy than a child born in most of the European countries, and Japan too.

Now comes word in the New York Times (of all places) that maybe what "Everyone" knows about our healthcare being worse than Europe's might not be accurate after all...

...a prominent researcher, Samuel H. Preston, has taken a closer look at the growing body of international data, and he finds no evidence that America’s health care system is to blame for the longevity gap between it and other industrialized countries. In fact, he concludes, the American system in many ways provides superior treatment even when uninsured Americans are included in the analysis.

Apparently the fact that America has a significantly more diverse population, and until recently lead the world in cigarette consumption for decades, has far more to do with our health outcomes than the quality of our healthcare...

Maybe we should take a closer look at some of the rest of the things that "Everyone" knows about our healthcare system before we make any final changes... Sometimes it really is worthwhile to go back and check the facts...

National Health Care, coming soon...?

In new poll numbers collected over the past week, the New York Times is showing that 72% of respondents are in favor of a government-run health care plan. Even more shocking -- 50% of Republicans were in favor of this.

See the original article here -- NYT Poll on Government Health Care.

This would have been astounding to me a few years back, but after wrestling with health care costs at my last company, and then shopping for private health care while starting my new business over the past 6 months, I am not that surprised.

Because I left my prior employer at the end of the year, and had to make the Cobra Election decision before the stimulus package was signed, I was not eligible for the low cost Cobra option in time to take advantage of it. Instead, I had the dubious pleasure of shopping for personal health insurance. In the end, it didn't take that long to find coverage, but the coverage options were terrible, and the costs were/are very high. I settled on a low end plan with very limited prescription coverage, and still spend almost $500/month to cover myself and a child.

I would imagine that challenges like that are behind the poll results that CBS news and the NYT found. It wasn't that much better when purchasing insurance in a small business -- there is only so long that companies can absorb 8-15% annual premium increases before even diehrd libertarians are willing to accept a government progam.

It will be very interesting to see if other polls find similar responses, and if so, where the debate goes from here...

Stay tuned...