Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Canadians healthier than Americans
You can add Canadians to the list of foreigners who are healthier than Americans. Americans are 42 percent more likely than Canadians to have diabetes, 32 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, and 12 percent more likely to have arthritis, Harvard Medical School researchers found. That is according to a survey in which American and Canadian adults were asked over the telephone about their health.

The study comes less than a month after other researchers reported that middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England.
By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press (May 30, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060530/ap_on_he_me/healthier_canadians


Image URL:
http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060530/capt.6e337bf3e06c402b8f4c445315a555cd.healthier_canadians_gfx972.jpg

Canadians Healthier Than Americans, Survey Says
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2006/05/30/hscout532992.html

Treating the Symptoms: What's Wrong with U.S. Health Care
Reality time
Anyone thinking that America has the best health system is delusional, and hopefully they can get treatment for that in Canada.... We spend more money per person on health care than any other country, yet we are consistently ranked rock bottom for most health indicators when compared to other wealthy nations.

Treating the symptoms
Something is clearly wrong, and it is likely our emphasis on treatment instead of prevention. The whole system is whacked. Insurance companies will cover the cost of a diabetic's amputation, yet they usually won't pay for nutritional counseling that could prevent or minimize the negative health effects of diabetes.
By Christopher Wanjek LiveScience.com (May 9, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060509_bad_healthcare.html

[rollo]

Thank you for pointing out that America is a boiling hell where only morally corrupt ,ruthless ignoramousus,s live. You have done the world a great service! Once again thanks!!!!

[red dog]

I'm assuming this is all based on surveys of Americans in the U.S. and Canadians in Canada, right? So why describe them as "foreigners"?

[Gopher]

[deleted]

[Hollywoodaction]

Well, it's a bit misleading. Quite a few Canadians are recent immigrants from Asia, people who tend to either healthier than the majority of Canadians, who equally likely to be unhealthy and obese as Americans.

[WorldWide]

[igotthisguitar]

Canadians healthier than Americans - study
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Tue May 30, 4:31 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite complaints about long waits for services, Canadians are healthier than their U.S. neighbors and receive more consistent medical care, according to a report released on Tuesday.

A telephone survey of more than 8,000 people showed that even though Americans spend nearly twice as much per capita for health care, they have more trouble getting care and have more unmet health needs than Canadians do.

The survey was done by Harvard Medical School researchers who include members of Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for a national health program in the United States.

"These findings raise serious questions about what we're getting for the $2.1 trillion we're spending on health care this year," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard.

"We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier, and live two to three years longer," Himmelstein added in a statement.

"Canadians had better access to most types of medical care (with the single exception of pap smears)," Himmelstein and colleagues wrote in the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Canadians were 7 percent more likely to have a regular doctor and 19 percent less likely to have an unmet health need. U.S. respondents were almost twice as likely to go without a needed medicine due to cost (9.9 percent of U.S. respondents couldn't afford medicine versus 5.1 percent in Canada)," they added.



UNMET NEEDS

[sundubuman]

My guess is that America is the leading hypochondriacal nation on Earth and any study trying to compare the self-reported health of US citizens will prove beyond a doubt that Americans are the sickest, most in pain, and most likely to die on planet Earth.

[Real Reality]

Pyongshin Sangja,
This bump is for you.

[Hollywoodaction]

A phone survey! How reliable is that?

[WorldWide]

[Hollywoodaction]

[khyber]

i agree with gopher...
With the exception of hypertension, they're all basically the same.

ridiculous this is new...ridiculous headline.

[desultude]

Come on, how can you argue that poor and even middle class people in the U.S. don't forgo routine medical treatment, exams, etc., because it is just too expensive.

The average person thinks more than twice before going to the doctor for something seemingly non-lethal due to the expense.

My brother in law has heart problems as well as pre-diabetes (he is slim, he exercises and does physical labor- some things are just hereditary). He needed a test recently, and his after-insurance payment for the doctor who prescribed the test, not the test itself, was over $200. Fortunately he could afford to pay it (not without some pain), but many people can't.

Diabetes test strips are expensive, and I have read that a lot of poor diabetics just forgo self testing. My father is a veteran, so his medicines are supplied by the V.A., elsewise he could not afford to buy them on his social security (hundreds of dollars a month for meds).

Even I let an ear infection go until it became excrutiating and sent me to the ER, because at the time I had no insurance (between countries and gigs).

This lack of standard preventative care not only causes the diseases to get worse, but it puts a huge toll of stress on people just knowing that they are a disease away from destitution ( a great deal of the bankruptcies in the States are due to medical costs).

These are just facts. Yes, I have heard all of the complaints about the health care system in Canada, and don't doubt the validity of most of them. But when it is needed, health care is available and medicine is affordable. That is a big difference.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Shouldn't it say 'Canadians less unhealthy'? Are there any industrialised countries with a higher percentage of unhealthy people than America?