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Wednesday, April 5th, 2017

Is U.S. Preeminence in High-Tech Medicine a Myth? The Case of Cystic Fibrosis

Author:     David Squires and David Blumenthal, M.D.
Source:     The Commonwealth Fund
Publication Date:     Tuesday, April 4, 2017
 Link: Is U.S. Preeminence in High-Tech Medicine a Myth? The Case of Cystic Fibrosis
Stephan:   Here is another proof that we have an illness profit system instead of true healthcare in the U.S..  A recent survey of patients with Cystic Fibrosis concluded, "The results are disturbing: on average, Canadian patients live 10 years longer than American patients. And the gap has been widening for the past two decades." Think about that for a moment: Many CF patients die in childhood. Those who reach adulthood, in the U.S.,  live to an average age of 37.  If you are in Canada on average your child will have 10 years more years of life than a child in the U.S.  How do you feel about that? Note also that a profit making insurance industry such as we have in the U.S. not only imposes vastly greater costs, but produces inferior social outcomes. What needs to happen isn't going to happen until we make wellbeing not profit the first priority. Every other country in the developed world has figured this out. Why can't the United States?

 

 

Median Age of Survival for Patients with Cystic Fibrosis over Time — Median age of survival (years)

U.S. health care has many well-documented shortcomings. However, it is often assumed that, because we invest so heavily in technology and specialists, our health care system performs well for patients who have rare or complex diseases.

New research shows that we should be skeptical of that assumption. A recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine compares the health outcomes of U.S. and Canadian patients with cystic fibrosis, an incurable, genetic disease that affects about one in 10,000 people in both countries. The results are disturbing: on average, Canadian patients live 10 years longer than American patients. And the gap has been widening for the past two decades (see exhibit).

The researchers suggest the likely culprit is the significant gaps in health insurance coverage among U.S. children and adults under age 65. Uninsured patients with cystic fibrosis, they find, face a much greater risk of early death than their insured peers. Of particular note, given […]

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