Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. In looking at a bar chart comparing the USA with other major countries, I saw a picture that sent an arrow into the heart of the problem.
We all know that something is terribly wrong with the health care scene in this country. There are tens of millions of working poor who have no safety net whatsoever, resulting in medical bankruptcies and patients who use the emergency room as their first line of defense. We have millions of citizens who think this is just fine. We have politicians who tell us that this is not good, but now is not the time to fix it - just too expensive.
Recently, I spent some time looking at a chart provided by the OECD that compared health care expenditures in the major countries of the world. I already knew that the US was spending more money on health than any of the others, and by a wide margin. Take a look at the second chart in the report OECD comparison of health expenditures. It tells quite a story. Not only does American health cost more overall, but it is the only country where private expenditures are roughly half of the government total. No other country even approaches this figure.
Here is my interpretation. The Big 3 (Big Insurance, Big Medical and Big Pharm) are making money hand over fist at our expense. They aren't very interested in changing the system that makes them so wealthy. They own one political party and have enough financial clout to make a number of the politicians in the other party afraid to actually do something. Now the Bush Supreme Court has opened the floodgates for them to donate money at will to politicians who are friendly to their point of view. Barring a miracle, this country will turn into the United States of Medical Profits within ten years unless somebody wakes up.