We can't have a national healthcare system, can we? It would be a massive mess of waiting lists, malpractice, and paperwork, right?
Wrong.
According to a recent survey, the United States leads the nations observed in the study in medical error.
Keep reading for more damning evidence that our privatized healthcare system sucks.
Specifically, the survey found that 34 percent of Americans polled reported at least one of four types of medical errors, including mistakes in treatment or care, incorrect drug or dose, lab/test result error or delay in notification of abnormal results. The next-highest error rate was in Canada at 30 percent, while Britain had the lowest mistake rate at 22 percent.
Despite the fact that Britain spends 7.1% of its gross domestic product on public healthcare, it received the lowest error rate in the study. Interesting. But wait, there's more.
However, Carolyn Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, told United Press International that America's poor marks for medical mix-ups should be put into context.
Many incidents chalked up to "medical error" are actually lab mistakes where test results are lost and then reordered, rather than the more serious drug mistakes, when a patient is given the wrong drug or dose, she said.
...
The Americans also got the lowest marks for medical records being unavailable at the time of the patient's appointment...
The myth about socialized healthcare is that it is a bureaucratic mess. From the excerpt above, it seems like our private system meets that description more accurately.
In the United States, you see, health is not a basic right as it is in other civilized nations. Instead, it is a commodity to be bought and sold. The healthcare industry's main concern is making a profit. Our health comes second to our $. When health isn't the focus of the healthcare industry, things are bound to get screwed up, as the survey indicates.