Understanding Health Care in the U.S. (Lessons from the Hoover Policy Boot Camp) | Chapter One

[@BJRUThere]

9:30 This graph is funny because it still shows a pretty significant disparity in infant mortality between the US and Sweden. Yes, it's not as big a difference as the original stat shows, but it's still like 30%. In other words, even if we adjust for differences in measurement techniques there's still a huge disparity and a huge amount of improvement that can be made.

[@person3070]

It does not adjust for definitions, only gestational age. If we adjust for definitions, the difference becomes nonexistent. Atlas states that definitions cause a 17% disparity, but as "Infant Mortality Is a Misleading Statistic for International Comparisons" notes, the difference may actually be up to 40%. If we use the 17% as fact, there is NO difference between Sweden and the United States. If we use the 40% figure, we find that American infant mortality rates are much lower than Sweden's. And that's not even including the other additional deaths that come from America's higher obesity rate. If we include those side-effects, we would likely be WAY below Sweden.

[@kellyasher-smalt3546]

This is very well done series. Scott Atlas defines the problem, demonstrating how our current system is unsustainable. The United States leads the world in health care spending. Yet, the US is ranked number 37th in health care quality. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to recognize that just doesn't make sense. he explains how the methods used to gather data and the measurement system used to analyze data were proven to be highly flawed (ex. 1/3 of the ranking score is based on equality (who gets access and what services they receive). He disputes the oft quoted statistics - some for the validity - some for being irrelevant - some that have confounds. For example life expectancy as a measure of health care quality. If you want to use life expectancy as a measure of health care quality you'd have to remove things like dying as a result of war, death from disease caused by lifestyle choices, intentional and accidental deaths to come to a semi usable number. He goes through a lot of facts first, before taking the next step of proposing solutions. He explains why health insurance costs and copays are so much higher yet, less health care providers accept your insurance and less medical services are covered. He then offers some fairly simple, well thought out steps we can take to address the issue.

[@sashaathanasia7464]

this video would more properly be titled "America Has the Most Advanced Healthcare System in the World", which I don't think is controversial. the problem is access to that care.

[@thescandal3882]

i thought it was a good video... the aca needs many reforms... doesn't mean its bad its the first attempt of its kin d

[@BJRUThere]

People arguing for more accessible healthcare (i.e. people who can't afford it don't have to decide between going bankrupt or dying/having poor quality of life) won't argue whether the actual healthcare you can receive in the US is good. To only address that aspect is foolish and essentially a straw man of those people's argument. The arguments that he provides in this video don't actually address the concerns of those people in the slightest. Very well done obfuscation, though.

[@person3070]

As you, and many other commentators have shown, people do actually think the healthcare received in America is bad, as seen in life expectancy and infant mortality debates. Yes, we can have a discussion on how to make healthcare more accessible, but more people think European healthcare is superior in quality to American healthcare quality, and Scott Atlas puts those notions to rest by proving them false. He has provided solutions on how to increase access and cheapen healthcare costs, like with expanded HSA's and price transparency laws, if you want to know more about how to make American healthcare affordable.