Social Health Care: What Barack Obama should learn from Old Europe
As we predicted already in March 2008: Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. The chances for change are enormous – if he will take some European advisers in his team. Sounds a little bit strange? Not at all, if you take a closer look to the health care system. by
Vlad Georgescu and Marita Vollborn
First of all, let’s take a closer look to the American healthcare system. Compared to the British National Health Service (NHS), the United States has nothing similar to be proud of on this field. People die in the US because they can’t afford the best medicine, or even the physician they deserve. No money, no healthcare benefit.
But there are alternatives like the NHS. The British NHS Direct offers a “forefront of 24-hour health care” - delivering telephone and e-health information services day and night direct to the public. This is far more than a telephone health line. NHS Direct has an authoritative health website, and 2004 saw the addition of the NHS Direct digital TV service - one of the largest interactive services in the UK. Over two million people now access NHS Direct every month. What count more: All of them benefit from the state owned healthcare system – by paying taxes, everybody in UK is contributing to the effective system.
Even Cuba has more to offer then the United States. Because according to the World Health Organization (WHO), only seven out of 1000 children in Cuba are dying at five years of age or younger - while this rate is 8 per 1000 in the US. WHO also reports that Cuban males have a life expectancy of 75 years, females reaching an average age of 79. In the US life expectancy is 75 and 80 years for males and females, respectively. Also better then the US counterpart is Cuba's infant mortality rate: 5 deaths per thousand in Cuba vs. 7 per thousand in the US. Take a guess why Cubans are living so long. Cuba has nearly twice as many physicians as the United States: 5.91 doctors per thousand people compared to 2.56 doctors per thousand, according to WHO.
Obama should understand whom to trust when listening how to act on crucial fields like healthcare system, stem cell research, genetics, or science in general.
Big pharmaceutical companies for example could face a new public understanding of science: Are their pills und drugs really worth the money they cost? Should private companies decide who is able to get the best therapy, instead of letting Universities and governmental agencies work on this field? Moreover: Delivering therapeutic drugs to all people in the US by establishing a state owned healthcare system like the NHS could become a real challenge – and change.
The special interest online-magazine LifeGen.de reaches more then 74.000 unique users coming from 124 countries worldwide. The magazine is read by the scientific community, by members of political institutions and by major public media. LifeGen.de was founded in 2001 an is considered to be one of Europes most important lifescience Online-Magazines. More then 6800 articles can be found at the German Business Information (GENIOS)
(2008-11-10)
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As we predicted already in March 2008: Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. The chances for change are enormous – if he will take some European advisers in his team. Sounds a little bit strange? Not at all, if you take a closer look to the health care system. by
