Three-and-a-half Questions

We at USDemocrazy are dedicated to finding smarter people than us to fill our blog with useless useful information.

Fortunately, it is easy to find people smarter than us.

Today we are launching the first of many new features at our blog that highlights the insights of some pretty brilliant folks. 

This feature is called Three-and-a-Half questions. We ask a current events expert three questions in their field of interest… plus one extra credit question in an unrelated area.

We have people banging on our door looking for an opportunity to join our blog (or they could be collection agencies). We are delighted to announce the Inaugural 3.5 Questionee is UMBC Professor of Political Science Roy Meyers!

Dr. Meyers knows alot about health care (in part because he has been reading our posts on the subject).

Below is the first of 3.5 questions we posed to him on the subject of his expertise (USDemocrazy insights are in GREEN):

1. Dr. Meyers, when looking at the World Health Organization’s ranking of the best health care systems in the world, the U.S. doesn’t even make top 10. Why is that?

DR. MEYERS:  

 The U.S. does not deserve to be in the top ten.  Yes, the quality of medical care in this country is often extraordinary, and the U.S. contribution to medical research is by far the greatest.  Yet there are three areas where the U.S. compares unfavorably to countries with levels of income similar to ours, and even to some poorer countries:

 a. at least a tenth of the population cannot afford health insurance;

 b. morbidity and mortality rates are higher; and

 c. we have these problems despite the fact that we spend far more on health care (currently about 16% of gross domestic product) than do other countries.

 So the short answer to your question is that the U.S. isn’t at the top because we are so inefficient in getting good health for the money that we spend (our emphasis).  But that problem also is an opportunity: we can substantially improve our situation if we make intelligent reforms.

You mention World Health Organization (WHO)… As shown by the current swine flu threat, the WHO is a great example of the need for international cooperation. 

One of its many contributions is the dissemination of data on health systems; see http://www.who.int/whosis/en/index.html.  (The acronym for the WHO Statistical Information System is “WHOSIS”–I wonder if they considered the alternative “WHODAT?”) Nice one.

You see, we told you Dr. Meyers was smart… and he has a lot more to say. We will return tomorrow with the remainder of his interview. In the meantime if you have any suggestions for future experts please let us know.