Is U.S. Health Care Inferior to the Rest of the World?

by Steve Bierfeldt ~ August 30, 2008

 “But we also have to demand greater efficiencies from our health care system. Today, we pay almost twice as much for health care per person than other industrialized nations, and too much of it has nothing to do with patient care.”

One of the major arguments used by the left is the substantial cost of health care in the United States as compared to other industrialized countries such as Canada or parts of Europe.  Advocates of socialized medicine constantly assert the superiority of other nations over the US based on the belief that health care is so inexpensive to citizens of these countries.

The argument falls flat and Barack Obama’s praise for the low cost of health care in other nations is hollow when the facts are brought to light.  In France for example, the health care system is suffering a number of shortfalls while the means of collecting revenue is often hidden.  Michael D. Tanner, senior fellow at the Cato Institute writes, “It’s funded through a 13.55 percent payroll tax, a 5.25 percent income tax and other taxes on tobacco, alcohol and drug-company revenues.  And the system is still running a $15.6 billion deficit.”

In the United Kingdom we see more of the same; perceived low cost with hidden expenses that increase price and decrease quality.  The UK’s National Health Service serves as a reminder of what can happen when competition fades and socialized medicine takes over.  Barack Obama would have you believe things are better elsewhere, but columnist Giles Whitt of the Times of London sees it differently.  He writes, “It goes without saying that healthcare on the NHS isn’t free. But just how un-free it is gets too little attention. We pay for it through our noses, every month. Next year’s NHS budget will be about £104 billion. That’s roughly £1,733 per man, woman and child. Multiplied by four for a typical two-child family, then divided by 12, that equates to median monthly family healthcare expenditure of £577, or $1,155 in American money. I can buy some very respectable US health insurance for $1,155 a month.”

Just like his campaign, Obama’s facts are based solely on emotion and when put to the test they fall apart.  While speaking to the crowd in Iowa Obama unveiled the five-part plan he alleged would lower costs and improve the quality of health care.