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New Health Rankings: Of 17 Nations, U.S. Is Dead Last

Re: We're Number......LAST

Unless society at large is impacted economically by others' obesity, then it is of no concern to society at large.

It seems to me that there is a major impact, however.

And what impact would that be?
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

And what impact would that be?

Umm.... increased health care costs?

Like it or not, we all pay in one way or another for increased cost of health care due to obesity, inactivity, drug abuse, and other "lifestyle" health issues. That's just one of many reasons why we have the most expensive health care on the planet.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

How about you look it up?

Like I said none of my business.

Second the impacts claimed are SELF INCUMBERED by the society at large. They took on these sorts of problems when taking on the responsibility of provinding health care. There wouldnt be a problem if society didnt impose itself in others business. Because they have, well guess what they get to deal with all the resulting problems. The same bunch that took this on is now complaining about how this that or the other hurts their precous programs. Same with public edeucation and other public "benifits".

Your or somebody elses obesity is NOT MY PROBLEM. I am not interested in the problem or looking it up. Because to be blunt it does not effect me or mine directly.

Further I am not interested in some twit telling me how to live. They can piss off as far as I am concerned. I pay cash for my families health care and get superior service to the jokers that insist on using insurance for every bloody thing. Cash in the health care world is again becoming king. And about damn time. The only insurance I keep and only to keep from having to pay the government now is a very high deductable plan. Its real insurance that pays 100% after my deductable.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Umm.... increased health care costs?

Like it or not, we all pay in one way or another for increased cost of health care due to obesity, inactivity, drug abuse, and other "lifestyle" health issues. That's just one of many reasons why we have the most expensive health care on the planet.

For whom? You? I suppose if you have a standard insurance plan then yea you might be paying for fat people, but your also paying for people with other health problems as well. Thats the nature of insurance. Risk pool. Duhh.

I dont pay for fat people directly. I pay cash and very very good discounts. I do have an insurance plan. I am sure I am paying for all sorts of people and lifestyles as part of the premium. So what? It is a very high deductable type that I keep now simply becuase we are now being mandated to have insurance. I dont need it. I just keep it for compliance reasons. It seems to me that the people that wanted the universal health care are now whining about all the people who are making their rates go up because of this that or the other heatlth problem. Well that what happens when you incumber yourself with anothers care. Now you want to tell fat people what to do. Who else are you going to tell what to do about their health. What are you gona do when they come around and tell you what to do?

YOUR health care is expensive, because you have insurance ie a version of prepaid health care. Mine insnt because my insurance is just that insurance, not prepaid health care. Like I said cash is king nowdays.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Did anyone actually read this POS spun article? Some things they calculate per capita, others they go per 100K. It's compiled specifically to get the answers they wanted, to paint the picture.

The old truism holds - "three types of liars: liars, damn liars and statisticians".
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Like I said none of my business.

Second the impacts claimed are SELF INCUMBERED by the society at large. They took on these sorts of problems when taking on the responsibility of provinding health care. There wouldnt be a problem if society didnt impose itself in others business. Because they have, well guess what they get to deal with all the resulting problems. The same bunch that took this on is now complaining about how this that or the other hurts their precous programs. Same with public edeucation and other public "benifits".

Your or somebody elses obesity is NOT MY PROBLEM. I am not interested in the problem or looking it up. Because to be blunt it does not effect me or mine directly.

Further I am not interested in some twit telling me how to live. They can piss off as far as I am concerned. I pay cash for my families health care and get superior service to the jokers that insist on using insurance for every bloody thing. Cash in the health care world is again becoming king. And about damn time. The only insurance I keep and only to keep from having to pay the government now is a very high deductable plan. Its real insurance that pays 100% after my deductable.

Is it not your business if your country is becoming less competitive and productive because of decreasing lifespan and rising illness?
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Is it not your business if your country is becoming less competitive and productive because of decreasing lifespan and rising illness?

Except that's not why we've become less competitive. The long death of our manufacturing sector is the cause of that one.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Except that's not why we've become less competitive. The long death of our manufacturing sector is the cause of that one.

The *only* cause?
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Pretty sure there's more than 17 countries in the world.

Yeah, but most of the rest of them are a lot poorer than America. This is a list of *developed* countries.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

The *only* cause?


Yes, the primary one. It has been happenning for some time and to the tune of "levelling the playing field".
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Yeah, but most of the rest of them are a lot poorer than America. This is a list of *developed* countries.

We also have a much higher population than those "developed" countries as well. The only nation on the list that even comes close to matching ours is Japan, and they're short about 200 million. Makes a pretty huge difference, since higher numbers of people will mean that we have a higher number of crimes and health issues than nations with a vastly smaller population.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

For whom? You? I suppose if you have a standard insurance plan then yea you might be paying for fat people, but your also paying for people with other health problems as well. Thats the nature of insurance. Risk pool. Duhh.

I dont pay for fat people directly. I pay cash and very very good discounts. I do have an insurance plan. I am sure I am paying for all sorts of people and lifestyles as part of the premium.

I'm sure you are, too. Moreover, when you do need that insurance plan, you will also be paying more as a copay, deductible, or whatever else you must pay. The health care providers are not in business for their health, you know. If some of the patients aren't paying, the rest have to make it up. If some require more care than they can afford, then the rest of us take up the slack.

Like it or not, that's reality.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

I'm sure you are, too. Moreover, when you do need that insurance plan, you will also be paying more as a copay, deductible, or whatever else you must pay. The health care providers are not in business for their health, you know. If some of the patients aren't paying, the rest have to make it up. If some require more care than they can afford, then the rest of us take up the slack.

Like it or not, that's reality.

Like I said I have a very high deductable plan with a very cheap premium. Its actual insurance. You dont use unless you are in serious deep kimchi. Like holes being plugged, kindneys being replaced, livers repaired. That sort of thing. Most peoples insurance is prepaid medical and thats why its so bloody expensive. Between my deductable my insurance payment and what I normaly spend in a year on medical expences for the familiy I am currently at a twentieth of what a normal health care premium would be. Hell even when I was building up the deductable reserve I was still at a third the cost. Another secret is that because I have a subsantial deductable saved up in the HSA there are now years were the health care for the year is paid for by the interest on the account investments and we actually make a small bit of money. Further there is enough in the dedcutable right now to be able to substantialy pay for major surgeries without tapping into the insurance. Which means to me that fat people dont effect MY premiums as much as they effect yours. Simple mathmatics I pay less premium therefore the cost a fat person would add is corispondingly less. My insurance is very simple. There are no bells and whistles. If I or my family needs to access it, it will pay 100% including corrisponding perscriptions and any anccileraries after the deductable which is substantial, about 25,000. However the cap is 10,000,000. Thats a lot of hospital care. Between this and the familiy cash only physician theres very little we actually subsidize with our medical dollars.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Did anyone actually read this POS spun article? Some things they calculate per capita, others they go per 100K.
Seriously...
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Thiis is a bit of an over exageration. German Doctors are some of the best in Europe. Like most countries those that can't hake it go into the military. I worked at Ft Riley Ks for 2 years and I could tell you horror stories aabout the **** thatt went on there. Also military Drs. do not need to be board certified to practice. How safe does that make you feel.

safer than working with german doctors,because with american field medics i dont have to explain what an allergy is or show them how to diagnose back problems.when the avg military soldier in the us knows more than the avg civilian german doctor we had in afghanistan,we lost all faith in their system.

we pretty much used the german hospital when we needed x-rays because they had the machine.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Except that's not why we've become less competitive. The long death of our manufacturing sector is the cause of that one.
While recent data from China are unclear, we are at worst now neck and neck with them as the largest manufacturing economies in the world. Of course, the number of our manufacturing jobs has declined, even as output has soared. Every one of the world's twelve largest manufacturing economies ahs lost manufacturing jobs since the mid-1990's. China in that time has lost more manufacturing jobs than the US has. US losses have been about average for the group. Like agriculture a century or so ago, manufacturing has lost any ability it may once have had to provide jobs for the masses. People need to get used to it.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

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Usa #1
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Something else the US typically ranks last in is deaths from amenable causes. That's deaths from things like appendicitis or whooping cough (among dozens of others) where death is 100% preventable given timely intervention using standard medical practice. We can't seem to do that.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

While recent data from China are unclear, we are at worst now neck and neck with them as the largest manufacturing economies in the world. Of course, the number of our manufacturing jobs has declined, even as output has soared. Every one of the world's twelve largest manufacturing economies ahs lost manufacturing jobs since the mid-1990's. China in that time has lost more manufacturing jobs than the US has. US losses have been about average for the group. Like agriculture a century or so ago, manufacturing has lost any ability it may once have had to provide jobs for the masses. People need to get used to it.

Yep. Chalk one up for efficiency/automation. It takes less workers, less time to make more things. All the unions and protectionism in the world will not change that.
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Yea time for single payer healthcare...
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

I'm sure you are, too. Moreover, when you do need that insurance plan, you will also be paying more as a copay, deductible, or whatever else you must pay. The health care providers are not in business for their health, you know. If some of the patients aren't paying, the rest have to make it up. If some require more care than they can afford, then the rest of us take up the slack.

Like it or not, that's reality.

But, that is not to say that the gov't can't make it even worse. They could demand that not only the cost of that medical care be paid for, but add 15% to 20% more, in insurance company overhead and profit, to those direct costs of care, as well. ;)
 
Re: We're Number......LAST

Yep. Chalk one up for efficiency/automation. It takes less workers, less time to make more things. All the unions and protectionism in the world will not change that.

It's just too bad that the workers we have left have not shared in the huge profits from that efficiency/automation. It's called productivity and that graph shows quite clearly the results of Reaganonmics for the last 30 years. Is that what we were told about supply side theory at the time? That all the increased profits of the computer age would go to corporations? I think just about anybody could look at that graph and see that it is usustainable for profits to keep increasng while real wages remain stagnant. Something has to give.

images


By the way. that little "hop" wages took in the 90's was Clinton's economy. The only one since Reagan where all wage classes saw increases.
 
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Re: We're Number......LAST

It's just too bad that the workers we have left have not shared in the huge profits from that efficiency/automation. I wonder why that is?

images

Why that is, mainly, is it simply takes less skill to feed "the machine" and remove its output, than to have the skill to actually make the things that "the machine" now makes. Except for those few skilled workers that adjust/repair "the machine" the rest are mostly semi-skilled "drones" that are fairly easy to replace. A missing link in your graph is that wages (take home pay) is not the only employer cost of labor, those wonderful pension and medical care benefit "labor" costs that are not in that paycheck went up instead.

Note the increase in employer provided medical care benefits over that 1980 - present period. Also note the cost of "defined benefit" retirement plans for past retirees, that were phased out at about that time (even the federal gov't switched from CSRS to FERS in 1986), continued to grow for those "lucky" folks that had COLA deals that kept pace with inflation. After the switch to "defined contribution", rather than "defined benefit", retirement plans the employer did not increase the salaries of those workers, but instead used the "savings" to pay (otherwise unfunded) retirement obligations to past workers "defined benefit" plans. After these "lucky" folks die off, the profits may rise enough to give decent raises to current "drone" workers (if employee health care costs permit).


http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports/costs.htm


An Introduction to the Health Care Crisis in America: How Did We Get Here?

http://www.oliverwyman.com/media/OW...yer_Sponsored_Healthcare_What_Happens_Now.pdf
 
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