Saturday, June 13, 2009

This past week, President Barack Obama has been working on his campaign promise to fix the U.S. health care system and is calling on Congress to develop the details of a plan around specific guidelines and principles that he has outlined in recent weeks. Individual members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have been supporting, as well as criticizing, Obama's direction and also positioning themselves with self-serving statements. Meanwhile, the president is admonishing them to get the health care dialogue moving along, because the nation's economy depends on it.

The purpose of this column is not to argue for or against Obama's health care plan; neither is its intent to convince you one way or the other. The following is simply a collection of verifiable facts about health care in the United States. Read them and you be the judge.

• Health care spending in the U.S. is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

• Although nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations -- and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

• The United States spends six times more per capita on the administration of the health care system than its peer Western European nations.

• Roughly one-third of American adults had medical expenses exceeding $1,000 in 2006. Only 12 percent of adult Canadians, and 4 percent of adult Britons paid this much.

• The United States had the highest infant mortality rates of 23 industrialized nations. U.S. rates were similar to those of Poland and Hungary.

• Growth in health insurance premiums has outpaced workers' earnings and inflation since 2004 by a ratio of four to one.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually reported that 54.5 million people were uninsured for at least part of the year in 2006.

• According to the Institute of Medicine, lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States.

The insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Business Roundtable, the Christian Coalition, the conservative radio talk show network together spent between $100 million and $300 million to defeat Hillary Clinton's health care plan -- even before debate began.

• A study by Citizen Action, a consumer group, reports that doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and other providers of medical services made campaign contributions of $79 million during the 1993-1994 election cycle. The insurance industry passed out $16 million. The American Medical Association, which objects to cost-control measures, contributed $3 million.

• The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country, but ranks 37 out of 191 countries judged by its performance, according to the World Health Organization.

• According to the Forbes 2006 Executive Pay List, Michael B. McAllister earned $3.33 million in compensation as CEO of Humana. John W. Rowe earned $22.2 million in compensation as CEO of Aetna. Bill McGuire had stock options worth $1.6 billion at the end of 2005, as CEO of United Health Group.

• According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in 2005 there were 2,084 health care lobbyists registered with the federal government. With 535 members of Congress, that's 3.8 lobbyists per member.

• The 2006 United Nations Human Development Report's human development index states the life expectancy in the United States is 77.5, and the life expectancy in Canada is 80.2.

• In a study of older Americans and Brits, the Brits had less of almost every major disease. Even the poorest Brit can expect to live longer than the richest American.

• A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving than a baby born in Detroit.

• In Cuba, access to health care is universal. In the U.S., health care costs run nearly $7,000 per person. But in Cuba, they spend around $251 per person. Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate and a longer average lifespan than the United States.

• Private insurance companies spend 15 percent on administrative costs, as opposed to 3 percent for large public plans like Medicare.

• The average family health insurance today is $12,000, and it is expected to double by 2016.

• Only half the employers who provided retiree health coverage in 2000 are still doing so today.

• Health insurance profits for 18 companies from 2002-2006 rose from $1.3 billion to $15.39 billion. That's a 1,084 percent increase in five years.

• Pharmaceutical CEO's average salary is $4.36 million a year, and health insurance company CEO's get $8.75 million a year. Aetna's Ronald Williams gets $32 million a year.

John Andola, a Key West resident, is a retired educator and gay rights activist. His column appears in The Citizen on Saturdays. He can be contacted at jandola@keysnews.com.