Health Stats that Lie

You’ve probably heard the reports about the dire state of healthcare in the United States. The World Health Organization, the health arm of the United Nations, ranks the US healthcare system number 37th in the world. Then why is it that when the European Royalty and oil shieks get sick they come to the US, not Morocco, Cyprus and Greece, which all ranked higher than the US. Oh, maybe it’s because….they want to live.

To understand this paradox take a look at how the WHO calculates the ratings. The US ranks number one in “responsiveness to patient needs and to choices of the individual patient.” That ranking accounts for 12.5% of the overall ranking. After all, who cares about patients’ needs and choices?
The two most heavily weighted factors are: one, if the system is government run and, two, equality of treatment.

The other statistic that is used to discredit our system is life expectancy. We are told that Europeans, with their government controlled health systems, have a greater life expectancy than Americans. True, they do, by 7/10ths of a year on average.

But, our average gets pulled down considerably when a couple of 20 yr. olds die in a drug-related drive-by? Or when a car full of drunk teenagers crash into a semi? European has a much lower homicide rate than we do. Also, because of their lower standard of living and tougher licensing laws, they have fewer young drivers than we do. When you adjust for violent deaths and car accidents, the US has a life expectancy equal to Europe’s.

As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies and statistics.