I am not surprised that Cal Thomas has joined the conservative rant against Obamacare. However, his U.K./U.S. comparison (Aug. 25) is worse than misleading. He notes “13,000 needless deaths in 14 U.K. hospitals in an eight-year span.” Our own Institute of Medicine estimated, in 2000, up to 98,000 such deaths annually in U.S. hospitals.
But the wider picture is truly depressing.
The United States expends 15.3 percent of gross domestic product on health care and the United Kingdom just 8.2 percent, yet the U.K. outperforms the U.S in many categories: life expectancy at birth is 80 years in the U.K. versus 78 for the U.S.; under age five mortality rate is six per 100,000 in the U.K. versus eight per 100,000 in the U.S.; maternal mortality rate is eight per 100, 000 in the U.K., 11 per 100,000 for the U.S.
And, the neonatal mortality rate? They win again with three per 1,000 births versus four per 1,000 births in the U.S. (Data from “World Health Statistics, 2007,” by World Health Organization.)
You get the point.
In spite of spending nearly twice as much on heath care as the U.K., people in the U.S. are getting worse outcomes. Go figure.
Kelly W. Breazeale, Greenwood
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