How long before American standard of healthcare mirrors that of the Castro regime in Cuba?

If it stands the court test, (which it won't) 4 years|||Canada and western Europe are better standards of comparison to the USA: they have similar level of development; similar demographics, except they all have universal care. There's no reason we can't mirror our neighbor to the north where life expectancies are 2.3 years longer than the USA and health care costs are nearly $3400 lower per capita.





The fact is that in the USA we pay nearly *twice* what Europeans pay for health care, and we have both higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy than most European countries. In the table below, im = infant mortality and L = life expectancy. See http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004393.h鈥?/a> for infant mortality and life expectancy; see http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/33/38979鈥?/a> for costs.





United States -- im= 6.4, L= 78.0, cost $7290, 16.0% of GDP


Canada --------- im= 4.6, L= 80.3, cost $3895, 10.1% of GDP





Austria -------- im= 4.5, L= 79.2, cost $3763, 10.1% of GDP


United Kingdom -- im= 5.0, L= 78.7, cost $2992, 8.4% of GDP


Denmark ------ im= 4.5, L= 78.0, cost $3362, 10.4% of GDP


Finland ------- im= 3.5, L= 78.7, cost $2840, 8.2% of GDP


France -------- im= 4.2, L= 79.9, cost $4763, 11.0% of GDP


Germany ------ im= 4.1, L= 79.0, cost $3527, 10.4% of GDP


Greece -------- im= 5.3, L= 79.4, cost $2727, 9.6% of GDP


Italy ----------- im= 5.7, L= 79.9, cost $2686, 8.7% of GDP


Norway ------- im= 3.6, L= 79.7, cost $4763, 8.9% of GDP


Spain --------- im= 4.3, L= 79.8, cost $2671, 8.5% of GDP


Sweden ------- im= 2.8, L= 80.6, cost $3323, 9.1% of GDP


Switzerland --- im= 4.3, L= 80.6, cost $4417, 10.8% of GDP





USA has 36 days longer life expectancy than these two countries!


Ireland ------- im= 5.2, L= 77.9, cost $3424, 7.6% of GDP


Portugal ----- im= 4.9, L= 77.9, cost $2150, 9.9% of GDP





According to David Frum (special assistant to president, 2001-2), between 2000 and 2007, the cost of the average insurance policy for a family of four doubled. See http://www.frumforum.com/the-bush-econom鈥?/a> In this question I show a back-of-the envelope estimate of the cost of maintaining the status quo http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;鈥?/a> We can't afford to maintain the status quo, but if we did it would cost $8 to $9 trillion spread over the next 10 years. John McCain agrees the current system is failing: http://www.protectpatientsnow.org/site/c鈥?/a>





Some folks blame our high costs on malpractice insurance. But the numbers don't support that. A recent CBO estimate http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10641/10鈥?/a> says malpractice reform might save half a percent of expenditures. Another estimate: including legal fees, insurance costs, and payouts, the cost of the suits comes to less than 1.5 percent of health-care spending. See http://www.insurance-reform.org/pr/AIRhe鈥?/a> and http://makethemaccountable.com/myth/Risi鈥?/a> Along those lines, it's interesting to note that a number of states already have "caps and tort reform" yet the insurance companies have not lowered the cost of malpractice insurance in those states. Finally, most malpractice cases occur in state court where the Federal government has no juristiction. See http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/th鈥?/a>


.|||if were lucky soon.





Cuba has better health care then america does.





we might have better machines and have cutting edge procedures but it available to everyone free.|||cuba would have good health care and jobs and lots more ,,IF not for Americas SANCTIONS against them,,,,,,,|||I give it about ten years.