[Vision2020] Health Care

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

I thank Andreas for pointing out that malpractice awards make up a small percentage of our health costs, as they do in all countries.  

But if they really are the reason why other countries do so much better than we do, then why is it that it is only Australia that has lower average malpractice awards than we do? 

In 2001 the Australian average was $97,014; the U.S., $265,100; Canada, $309,417; and the United Kingdom, $411,171.

By the way, as a scholar who has lived by blind review for over 30 years, I made up all these figures, all the numbers in all my previous columns, and everything that I published since 1970.  And I fooled every single one of those reviewers!!

Ready at hand on my desktop is updated health statistics from Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that all industrialized nations report to; the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO); the Spring, 2006 and Summer, 2000 issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association; CIA World Fact Book (2005); 2002 Report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; website of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Center for Health Statistics; and Advocates for Youth at www.advocatesforyouth.org.

Yours for accuracy,

Nick Gier