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America's healthcare is the envy of the world............All this is thanks to America's innovative, free market culture.
America's heathcare is great, no doubt (well mental healthcare maybe not so much), but there are many countries with as good or better systems and outcomes. Many of whom have a form of universal healthcare.
This report provides some good points of comparison:
The most interesting stat I think is the Mortality rate amenable to healthcare. An important measure where the US ranks last among comparable countries.
From the report:
Mortality amenable to healthcare is a measure of the rates of death considered preventable by timely and effective care. While the health care system might not be expected to prevent death in all instances, differences in amendable mortality indicate how effectively health care is delivered. The Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index is based on amenable mortality and uses age-standardized, risk-standardized mortality rates for 32 causes that timely and effective health care could potentially prevent. Based on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, the HAQ Index is scaled from 0 to 100: lower scores indicate high mortality rates for causes amenable to health care, while higher scores indicate lower mortality rates and thus better quality of and access to health care. The U.S. ranks last among comparable countries on the HAQ index with a score of 88.7.
Other points of interest:
- The U.S. has more frequent hospital admissions for preventable diseases than in comparable countries.
- The U.S. has higher rates of medical, medication, and lab errors than comparable countries
- Adults in most comparable countries have quicker access to a doctor or nurse when they need care, with US only slightly ahead of Canada, but far behind the average and a long long way behind the Netherlands and Australia.
I'm sick and tired with all the America bashing by leftists.
America is the freest, most prosperous, least racist country in the world. Parts of it look third world, but those are the parts ruined by leftist policies encouraging illegal immigration and homelessness.
America's healthcare is the envy of the world. Canada's healthcare sucks, with its staggeringly long waiting lists for surgeries. Everyone has healthcare but it's crappy healthcare. No wonder Canadians come down to Houston in drove for cutting edge cancer treatment. All this is thanks to America's innovative, free market culture.
Even on here you can't escape from the right wing "America is the greatest country in world/America is perfect" propaganda. Seriously every word of this post is false. I can think of at least 10 countries that have more freedom and less restrictive regulations than America. Japan is the most prosperous. Countries such as Australia, Canada, and UK are less racist based on less incidents of hate crimes.
The healthcare in America is not high quality just because it's expensive. You don't get what you pay for. The medical field just like every other field in America has a high level of incompetence.
America's heathcare is great, no doubt (well mental healthcare maybe not so much), but there are many countries with as good or better systems and outcomes. Many of whom have a form of universal healthcare.
This report provides some good points of comparison:
The most interesting stat I think is the Mortality rate amenable to healthcare. An important measure where the US ranks last among comparable countries.
From the report:
Mortality amenable to healthcare is a measure of the rates of death considered preventable by timely and effective care. While the health care system might not be expected to prevent death in all instances, differences in amendable mortality indicate how effectively health care is delivered. The Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index is based on amenable mortality and uses age-standardized, risk-standardized mortality rates for 32 causes that timely and effective health care could potentially prevent. Based on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, the HAQ Index is scaled from 0 to 100: lower scores indicate high mortality rates for causes amenable to health care, while higher scores indicate lower mortality rates and thus better quality of and access to health care. The U.S. ranks last among comparable countries on the HAQ index with a score of 88.7.
Other points of interest:
- The U.S. has more frequent hospital admissions for preventable diseases than in comparable countries.
- The U.S. has higher rates of medical, medication, and lab errors than comparable countries
- Adults in most comparable countries have quicker access to a doctor or nurse when they need care, with US only slightly ahead of Canada, but far behind the average and a long long way behind the Netherlands and Australia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SEAandATL
Even on here you can't escape from the right wing "America is the greatest country in world/America is perfect" propaganda. Seriously every word of this post is false. I can think of at least 10 countries that have more freedom and less restrictive regulations than America. Japan is the most prosperous. Countries such as Australia, Canada, and UK are less racist based on less incidents of hate crimes.
The healthcare in America is not high quality just because it's expensive. You don't get what you pay for. The medical field just like every other field in America has a high level of incompetence.
These are all true, but they should be caveated with the fact the US is being compared with developed countries in all of this. It may with some metrics that are middling or at the back, but these are middling or at the back of *developed* countries rather than compared to the world at large. There are very few metrics where the US is truly way in the back compared to all countries, and there are quite a few where it’s still very much in the top twenty percent of countries like median household income, patents per capita, and HDI rankings. The talk of America being the freest, most prosperous, least racist, etc. is indeed incredibly stupid and ill-defined, but that doesn’t change that the US is overall roughly in the top fifth of countries and very much a developed country.
The talk of America being the freest, most prosperous, least racist, etc. is indeed incredibly stupid and ill-defined, but that doesn’t change that the US is overall roughly in the top fifth of countries and very much a developed country.
Americans tend to think they live in the freest and most prosperous country on earth because of the choices and opportunities available in this country among such a large population.
It is comparatively easy to live in a big house with a lot of material comforts, own big cars, take to the open highway and drive thousands of miles through diverse landscapes. Or to save time, you can hop on plane and fly to dozens of cities, all without leaving the country. Stay in luxurious hotels and resorts. And of course, if you do want to leave the country, then you can get a passport and visa to just about anywhere in the world.
When you compare this level of freedom to other places in the world, it does look rather attractive.
Americans tend to think they live in the freest and most prosperous country on earth because of the choices and opportunities available in this country among such a large population.
It is comparatively easy to live in a big house with a lot of material comforts, own big cars, take to the open highway and drive thousands of miles through diverse landscapes. Or to save time, you can hop on plane and fly to dozens of cities, all without leaving the country. Stay in luxurious hotels and resorts. And of course, if you do want to leave the country, then you can get a passport and visa to just about anywhere in the world.
When you compare this level of freedom to other places in the world, it does look rather attractive.
Right, it is quite attractive compared to a rather large majority of the world. I'm disinclined by personal preference to agree with some of your assessments of what is valuable like ease of having a big house or owning big cars as all that luxurious since there are other factors to consider that end up in greater material comfort in some ways. I prefer urban living with good infrastructure and the ease of getting to many places and services right outside my doorstep without driving and allotting for big cars and big houses geometrically makes that difficult--so in the US it's a bit of a luxury to have that kind of urban living without having to almost necessarily pay a really high premium and with some significant drawbacks that not all urban, walkable areas in other developed countries have. Plus, being able to hop on a plane and fly to dozens of cities, or even to hop on a number of comfortable high-speed train services, is really easy for a lot of countries with fairly little friction in terms of leaving the countries, which some might argue to be a more interesting experience than travel within the same country and essentially the same culture, for a lot of developed countries with passports that don't require visas. Additionally, staying in luxurious hotels isn't actually even exclusive to developed countries and it's arguable that hotel hospitality in some countries at just about every price point is generally of much higher standards than most elsewhere including the US. Also, there's the amount of paid time off / vacation days to enjoy such which can vary greatly from country to country.
However, the greater point that I believe we both firmly believe is that the US has a good deal of material comfort and leisure compared to much of the rest of the world. The places where the US in some metrics looks less attractive for various reasons, but still more attractive for various other reasons, is usually in comparison to countries that are also generally seen as developed countries. Now if that's the case, then that's as solid an argument as any that the US is very much a developed country even if there are a few metrics like incarceration rate that are seemingly well out of line with other developed countries. Also, I do hope you reconsider the logic behind the need for a high incarceration rate for the kind of economic prosperity, dynamicism and liberty the US has. It simply doesn't make much sense to me since other countries that compare favorably on those metrics to the US have nowhere near the same incarceration rate and the worst offenders among US states are some of the least economically prosperous or dynamic and essentially derive a lot of their quality of life from funding transfers from states that are.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 05-11-2020 at 10:12 AM..
Right, it is quite attractive compared to a rather large majority of the world. I'm disinclined by personal preference to agree with some of your assessments of what is valuable like ease of having a big house or owning big cars as all that luxurious since there are other factors to consider that end up in greater material comfort in some ways.
So, this goes back to that subjectivity point I was trying to make in an earlier post. Americans generally do prefer bigger houses and cars and would rather live in the spacious locales of a metro area than in small living spaces. There are a some exceptions to this like New York City.
Few Americans with families think that a cramped living space is the ticket to the good life. This is why the vast majority of dwellings in the United States are single family homes rather than multi-family units. And American suburbs usually have easy access to most amenities. I think that only a few other countries like Canada and Australia are similar to the United States in this regard.
So, this goes back to that subjectivity point I was trying to make in an earlier post. Americans generally do prefer bigger houses and cars and would rather live in the spacious locales of a metro area than in small living spaces. There are a some exceptions to this like New York City.
Few Americans with families think that a cramped living space is the ticket to the good life. This is why the vast majority of dwellings in the United States are single family homes rather than multi-family units. And American suburbs usually have easy access to most amenities. I think that only a few other countries like Canada and Australia are similar to the United States in this regard.
Oh yea, I believe that which is why I said it was a personal preference of mine--as in, I don't think it's necessarily better, but just what I prefer.
I think it's meaningful to qualify what cramped living space means. Certainly anyone who believes their living space is cramped means that they are displeased with the amount of living space they have. My points are not everyone hits the feeling of it being cramped at the same square footage and that varies, within certain bounds, especially by culture and how people utilize space for necessary functions nor is the priority on square footage against other things like convenience towards accessing public amenities and shops easily and quickly the same for everyone. That can vary greatly and so I don't think square footage per person by itself is a sensible criteria for how developed a country is. Also, there are certainly Americans who would like to live in a more walkable, urban area, but the problem is that the ones that are fairly safe with good schools and infrastructure often have an extremely high cost per square footage and a lot of associated other issues that are not necessarily the same cost-benefit trade-off you see in some walkable, urban areas in some other developed countries.
Regardless, I think we're agreed that the US, even if it's not at the very top for some metrics, is overall a developed country, right?
Also, I do hope you reconsider the logic behind the need for a high incarceration rate for the kind of economic prosperity, innovation and liberty the US has. It simply doesn't make much sense to me since other countries that compare favorably on those metrics to the US have nowhere near the same incarceration rate and the worst offenders among US states are some of the least economically prosperous or dynamic and essentially derive a lot of their quality of life from funding transfers from states that are.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 05-11-2020 at 11:56 AM..
So, this goes back to that subjectivity point I was trying to make in an earlier post. Americans generally do prefer bigger houses and cars and would rather live in the spacious locales of a metro area than in small living spaces. There are a some exceptions to this like New York City.
Few Americans with families think that a cramped living space is the ticket to the good life. This is why the vast majority of dwellings in the United States are single family homes rather than multi-family units. And American suburbs usually have easy access to most amenities. I think that only a few other countries like Canada and Australia are similar to the United States in this regard.
Right. And it's worth noting that America has a higher birthrate than other developed countries, though unfortunately it's also declining. Traditionally having a family and children was the American ideal. Married men and married women are happier than single men and women. I am not denying domestic violence, divorce, or infidelity that will definitely break a marriage, but it is a fact that married couples without any domestic violence, gambling, alcoholism, addictions, financial problems, or infidelity are going to be much happier, more mature people than single people.
Right. And it's worth noting that America has a higher birthrate than other developed countries, though unfortunately it's also declining. Traditionally having a family and children was the American ideal. Married men and married women are happier than single men and women. I am not denying domestic violence, divorce, or infidelity that will definitely break a marriage, but it is a fact that married couples without any domestic violence, gambling, alcoholism, addictions, financial problems, or infidelity are going to be much happier, more mature people than single people.
Wait, you understand that you can give birth even if not married, right? If the idea of married men and women are much happier, then I'm going to go on a limb here and it's more about remaining married and happily so more than just having once been married at some point regardless of the outcome.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 05-11-2020 at 03:18 PM..
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