I recently discovered the Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index (check out http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx). This organization examined every nation's prosperity which was defined by such factors as health, good government, personal freedom, and income. Finland was #1 this year but the Finnish average income is only $36,900, the sixteenth best in the entire world.Even I make more than that! But the study demonstrated that there are a lot of other things that define a prosperous nation and money isn't important enough. Take the USA for example. We were #9 between the Netherlands and New Zealand, not too shabby but still, this is America, can't we do better?
One factor stood out for me. Out of the 104 rankings we were #27 in health. I point this out because we spend more money than any other nation in the world on healthcare yet were only able to muster the twenty seventh spot? What is the matter with healthcare in America?!
We are the only Western nation with a strict everybody-for-themselves healthcare. As the Senate debates this issue I am hoping and praying for major reform including a public option, portable coverage, malpractice limits, and no preexisting issues among many other things. I can't stand the fact that there are so many ignorant people fighting this issue.
For example, there are those that insist if people would just work they will get health insurance. Last weekend, a free clinic did full exams on over 1000 people in New Orleans. 83% of them were employed yet their employees did not offer coverage. Are Heidi and I the only people that I know that feel so strongly about this issue and support dramatic change or are there others?
5 comments:
I completely agree with you Dan (assuming it is Dan that wrote this post). There are many Americans who's lives are controlled by their health care provider. There is a guy in our stake who was getting ready to retire from work and then his company laid him off and cut his benefits. He has been coming to the stake unemployment meetings to look for work because he cant get/afford private health coverage with his wife's illness. So now he must forget about retiring and find a job only for health benefits.
On a slightly un-related, but related note, I have a dear friend who lives in Finland, and while they may not pay the best, there are other great perks about working there.
She wrote about it here:
http://acememories.blogspot.com/2009/09/finnish-work-life.html
I personally can't decide how I feel. I do feel like the new health care plan has some great points. My husband is pre-med so we have a few concerns. One is that by the time he is done with med school we will probably have around $250,000 in student loans! We would like to be able to pay them off one day. Most doctors work really hard for their money. While I don't disagree with them being paid less, I do think that the government should step in and help pay for med school so that people like us can hope to one day be able to pay off student loans.
Is it possible that Finnish people are so much healthier because they tend to eat fish while we Americans tend to wolf down burgers and fries? How many fat Finnish people do you know? Even with free healthcare, I would venture to assume that Americans would still be down there just because of our lifestyles. Obviously, healthy people get sick, but there is definitely a huge link between what we eat (fat foods, pre-made foods, preservatives) and long term health problems.
I agree - I am also an advocate for major health care reform or CHANGE! However, the plan that Obama has proposed, is more of just ideas and a lot of money to go with it. If we are going to throw money at something, there needs to be a plan in place, not just ideas. So I don't really know how I feel about the health care reform bill, if only I could get more detailed information about it. Maybe it's out there and I just haven't looked hard enough.
~Nicole
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