One of the more amusing arguments put forth by liberals advocating destruction of America’s current health care system is the U.S. ranking of 37th on the World Health Organization’s health care index. If 36 lesser (they must be lesser, right?) nations outperform us on health care then something must be wrong with our system, they say.
In a word, no. Our system is one of the best.
For the record, the WHO quit issuing health care rankings nine years ago. It cites the cumbersome process of coordinating often-unconnected data in a meaningful pool of useful information as the reason. When you look at the list, those ahead of us are almost all mono-ethnic nations. We are the highest-ranking diverse society on the list.
What all that means is health and healthcare are about 15 percent related and 85 percent unrelated. Genes, lifestyles, environment, etc. have more to do with you living a long and healthy life than medicine. Plus in the U.S. you have to factor in deaths from traffic in our uniquely mobile society, gun deaths in our uniquely criminal underbelly and so on. The WHO rankings do not reflect health care quality, something even WHO recognized and it discontinued the measure.
Another popular myth is the claim that the U.S. has one of the worst infant mortality rates in the developed world. This also is false.
In the U.S., we determine an infant’s life and viability by a very simple test – does it breathe air? If but one faint breath is taken at birth the baby is considered born alive even if that’s the only breath it ever takes.
Not so in the rest of the world. Other nation’s determination of viability occurs anywhere from one month after birth to as much as six months after birth. Any deaths occurring before their predetermined point of viability are not counted as infant deaths as they are in the U.S. Our infant mortality rate is actually one of the lowest, if not the lowest, when you fairly compare apples to apples.
The granddaddy of all misrepresentations in the health care debate is the 47 million of so-called uninsured. Oddly, government agency after government agency has debunked this myth but less than ethical government officials continue to pretend the number is real.
It isn’t.
About 10-12 million of the uninsured are illegal aliens. They are breaking the law by being here and doctors and hospitals that extend care are breaking the law by not calling immigration services once the patient has been treated. Both the census and congressional budget office note that 20 million of the uninsured have incomes in the $50,000 or more range. They can afford health care but simply choose not to buy it. Another 8-10 million already qualify for Medicaid or other health care programs but have not bothered to sign themselves up.
When you separate the wheat from the chaff, you’re left with about eight million hard core uninsured.
The obvious question is why would anybody in their right mind destroy the health care system that functions well for nearly 300 million people in order to address an eight million-person problem?
Another whopper is that health care reform is necessary to make our country more competitive in the world marketplace. Totally untrue.
Taxes are what make American companies uncompetitive in the world marketplace. At a staggering 35 percent, we have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. We have one of the highest corporate capital gains taxes in the world.
Health care costs are immaterial compared to federal, state and local tax burdens. If the government wants companies to be more competitive, they would be well advised to quit stealing their money.