"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
diggerop wrote:
Currently, Australia spends approx 9% of GDP on medical care. I
believe the US currently spends something like 15% of GDP. Yet
Australians reportedly live on average live 4 years longer than the
average US citizen. Got to be food for thought in that.


More like food for further investigation. True, we spend more of GDP on
health care than most other countries. That's possibly because we can. We
probably spend more on pay-TV, eating out, earth shoes, and other
non-critical items than other countries simply because we can. Some
"health care" in the U.S. is discretionary (think breast implants -
although I did see a recent article complaining that Australia was having
to import 1000cc implants from the U.S. because of a severe in-country
shortage...).

Life expectancy is also a poor metric for the efficacy of health care. For
example, most countries count severly premature infant deaths as
"stillborn" (such as France). In the U.S., Herculean efforts are expended
on these unfortunate children. Regrettably, many don't make it and skew
the "life expectancy" tables downward.


I'm not sure why I bother, however; -Think about what you are saying. If
there are sufficient premature infant deaths to skew life expectancy results
for a nation the size of the US, then your standards of medical care,
(despite the herculean efforts you alluded to,) must rank as some of the
most appalling and inept in the world.

A better metric for health care may very well be life expectancy after a
diagnosis. In this category, the U.S. leads. For example, life expectancy
of five years or more after diagnosis of breast cancer is 95% in the U.S.
vs. 56% in the U.K. This MAY be due to greater diagnostic capability in
the U.S. than in other places. In that regard, consider: there are more
MRI machines in my town than in all of Canada. Again, we have a greater
diagnostic infrastructure, probably, because we can afford it.

You posted the same grossly out of date statistics on breast cancer in
another thread some time ago. I refuted them then and gave you cites. It's
interesting to me that you and I probably have the same political leanings,
however, your propensity to post out of date, unsubstantiated, ill thought
out rubbish simply makes you an easy target for the left. ..... I'm
beginning to feel sorry for you, and that can't be good.

Australian-rules football is plenty tough (I think knives are limited to
6" or less). But have you ever heard of an MRI machine at an Australian
stadium? Several of our pansy-football stadiums have a machine readily
available.


Six inches? ......... That's not a knife! : )

diggerop