With the whole health care debate going on right now, I frequently hear liberals cite the World Health Organization’s rankings for which country has the “best” health care (the US is ranked 37th, by the way).
I've never met a person who decided to travel to Oman for their cancer treatment. I've never read a story about a person flying to Saudi Arabia for their eye surgery, just like I've never heard of anybody going to Colombia for their fertility treatments. Yet I have heard hundreds of accounts of people coming to the US for procedures. Strange that so many people around the world would pay out of their own pocket to receive the 37th best health care.
Of course the liberals don’t understand that the WHO isn't measuring quality of care.
One of their problems is measuring the life expectancy, but there are lots of things that cause premature death that have nothing to do with the quality of health care a person receives. If you remove the deaths from murder and car accidents, the US life expectancy is one of the highest.
Another flaw in the WHO rankings it that they reward countries based on how "fairly" they distribute their health care. That has little to do with the quality of health care they are receiving. As long as everybody in the country receives a fair amount of crappy health care - they will rank higher on the list than the US (not to mention this way of judging a system is completely subjective).
The US also falls short because of the number of
uninsured we have. Of the 45 million uninsured, 17 million make more than $50,000 per year, 9 million make more than $75,000 per year, 10 million are here illegally and 15 million are eligible for existing government programs but have chosen not to enroll.
Basically, the WHO rewards socialized systems so it's no wonder we rank so low, but it's a poor indicator of the quality of health care we are receiving. But seriously, please let me know if you’re planning on traveling to Morocco for your medical treatments.
