Hundred Power

Doctors, nurses, and hospitals are killing people. It’s not intentional murder. But, dead is dead when you’re the victim of their medical “mistakes.” This goes on year after year. How many? The Institute of Medicine estimates that the number of dead people is as many as 98,000. This is just from “mistakes.” If you killed someone due to a driving “mistake,” you’d expect to do jail time.

Is this level of misfeasance something new? Something just learned? No, this awful rate of death has been known even before the Institute of Medicine published its famous report in 1999. Did you ever hear of state or federal commission being established to investigate why so many Americans are being killed?

Maybe this death rate is related to the quality of medicine in the U.S. Try this one. In 2000, the World Health Organization found the United States ranked 37th in the world in its health care, just ahead of Cuba and Slovenia. In 2006, the U.S. was spending 16% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product on healthcare. That’s more than any other country spends. That’s like spending $50,000 for a car and driving home a beater. And the costs have been continuing to rise . . . big-time. How did our can-do country get itself into such a dead-end trap?

Finally, those awful numbers about the cost of health care don’t even include the Americans who do NOT get health care. The accepted statistic is that 27,000 Americans have to die each year because they do not have health insurance. And, they just can’t afford basic care from their own financial resources.

End of story. What more would you need to know to get “mad as hell?” The Congress could face the problems and create the solutions. In health care, any state legislature has the authority to face the problems and create the solutions. But, they seem to always find an excuse to look the other way. You can let them know your position.

The financing scheme for universal healthcare is almost another topic. But, if that is of interest, here’s one way to do it:Universal Health Insurance.

Click here to contact your representatives in Washington, D.C.:
Our Elected Officials. Tell them you want them to fix something . . . anything. And, your state politicians could also start paying attention.

– Byron

References:

“To Err Is Human,” The Institute of Medicine, November, 1999.

To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System.

“The world health report 2000,” The World Health Organization, June, 2000.

World Health Organization Assesses the World’s Health Systems.