Matt Davies for July 07, 2009

What does he base the declining state of U.S. health care on?

nomad: Liberal Power Gap.

wow … this is a good one … only a small portion of what flows into the right arm of the health insurance behemoth’s arm actually comes out the left into the patient …. thus the chart at the foot of the bed graphs declining health for US

well done

This cartoon shows what is a really big problem- too much money for the CEO’s of health insurance companies.

I think the ins. companies are the trust that needs busting of the present day.

deadhead - there aren’t enough CEO’s on the planet to spend that kind of money.

…and putting something worse in its place will not only deprive you but poison you as well.

Nice try. No dice.

Sure about that, nomad? “A chief executive officer of a Standard & Poor’s 500 company was paid, on average, $10.4 million in total compensation in 2008, according to preliminary data from The Corporate Library.” And that was a decline. See also this table from Forbes, hardly a socialist rag, which says total compensation for the CEOs of the 500 largest US companies was 12.8 million: http://tinyurl.com/mzztj7

Let’s see…500 times $12.8 million equals $6.4 billion…

We need to remove overpaid insurance executives from the US health care system. I’d be in favor of a government takeover of the major health care insurers. As long as the CEO’s are all lined up against a wall and shot!

Actually, M Kitt, most of the countries you mention do have some private healthcare companies. They cater to those who want something more - or different - and have the extra money to spend. It seems to work out altogether, and is also cheaper when you look at the average expenditures on healthcare per capita.