It was often said by conservatives, back during the healthcare debate, that all the polls showing that 84% or whatever of people with coverage were perfectly happy with it showed that there wasn't a problem. It was and is difficult to rebut because there was a small element of truth to it and it's the kind of seemingly common-sensical claim that shuts down arguments.
The only critique of it is that people are satisfied with what they have provided they don't know what other people have. For example, if you drive a Chevrolet Aveo and aren't aware that other people drive Lexuses and Acuras and BMWs, you'll be perfectly happy, because the Aveo is perfectly fine little car.
So out comes a new report from the Commonwealth Fund studying the healthcare systems of seven advanced nations. It ranks the seven nations - Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States - on care, access, efficiency, equity and life expectancy. And then it looks at cost.
Naturally, the US is dead last and has the highest cost. We spend $7,290 per person per year. No other country spends even $4,000. In the 12 categories, the US ranks sixth or seventh in nine of them. Never higher than fourth. The UK, incidentally, ranks first or second in seven categories (evidence of this study's obviously socialistic bias, I suppose). The Netherlands ranked first overall.
Of course, our conservative US commenters will...well, let's just see. To extend our metaphor from above, the best way for people in power to convince Aveo drivers that they should not hanker for better cars is not really to tout the virtues of the Chevrolet, although they would do a little of that, but rather to besmirch and defame the makers of the Lexuses and Acuras and BMWs and others as un-American whores of Bablyon and so forth. That accomplished, people get high and righteous about their unmatchable little Chevy.
I know I've said many times that politically, if I'd been advising Obama, I would have advised waiting on healthcare. That's still my view. At the same time I'm fully aware in substantive terms our system is in crisis and needed attention. It will still be a long, long slog. But I'd be sort of proud one day to open one of these reports and find that my country was no longer actually last, which it's been since I attained adulthood if not before.
