There is no doubt that improvements to American’s diet would make an impact on health. This includes reforming FDA recommendations to be more flexible to new findings on health. In a rational and healthy world there would be more reliance on whole low-tech food in reasonable portions to provide the basic foundation of wellbeing for American families.
Also in a rational and healthy world the US would have a health care system that prioritized prevention and covered everyone. Not too much to ask right? Especially given that many many other countries in the world have figured out how to provide this to their citizens. This Frontline Report (for which there is only a link, no embedding possible darn PBS…click “watch online” on the top menu) is an excellent critical profile of the systems four different countries established and the commonalities of each.
The most exciting report is that of Switzerland, an independent capitalist nation that started off with a system (if you can call it that) much like ours. The bottom line for the Swiss and the other nations’ systems is that you simply can’t have insurers making a profit on basic care. The incentive for good health is too obscured by the possibility of revenue. You have to wonder how we manage having any healthy people in this country given how much profit potential there is in the sick, from cholesterol lowering drugs to anti-depressants so much of the profit would be unavailable with simple prevention measures particularly those based on a low-tech whole food diet.
In addition to removing the profit from health care the other common lessons are:
Insurance companies must accept everyone, no limits for pre-existing conditions
Everybody is mandated to buy health insurance, government pays premium for low-income
Doctors and hospitals have to accept one standard set of fixed prices
You don’t lose your insurance when you lose or change your employment. And-here’s the kicker of what actually happens with these other systems- no one goes bankrupt due to medical costs (!!)
In the US debt from medical costs is the number one source of bankruptcy!
These should translate nicely into a good set of lessons for the US as we embark on health care reform, but that has yet to be the case. Take some time to watch this report and become the supposed minority of Americans who believe we can learn from the experience of other nations. I think the information here is good fodder for responding to often unsubstantiated claims about the perils of the systems of France and Canada. (Maybe that’s why coorespondent T.R. Reid chose other examples)
I think it will be useful for us all to understand and keep in mind lessons from the health systems around the world, which are, for the most part, from free market nations like the US. This will be particularly true in thinking about the presidential election and those first 100 days of the new presidency, since this issue will be dealt with with serious executive involvement. Since I can’t (don’t want to) imagine what kind of effort a McCain presidency would make in terms of dealing with our 47 million and 25 million un- and under- insured citizens I can only speak to the likely efforts of an Obama administration. I have to say for as much as I admire his approach to many policy areas I am pretty unclear on what he will actually do for health care reform.
His plan doesn’t seem to be committed to covering absolutely everyone, and there is no hint of moving beyond employer-based coverage. His statements as senator are more promising than his statements as presidential candidate and it is hard to know what changes would be made in his plan once actually taking office.
Health Care for America Now has the same issues as Obama’s plan and they lack the specificity I really appreciated from T.R. Reid. But they are on the forefront of the effort so it seems worth sharing your thoughts with them, maybe based on the Frontline report, on the approach you think would work for us.
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