The Hidden Costs of Health

There's a very interesting analysis in today's NYT on the reasons behind the fact that we in the US pay in excess of 50% more per capita for health care, yet deliver it to only a portion of our population (~ 85%, by my rough estimate), with serious shortfalls in actual coverage, and with poorer results overall than any other advanced country. Highly recommended.

Also, FireDogLake has an online petition pressuring Congress to stay in session until they get a health care bill. The e-mail they sent me had these frightening statisitcs:

There is a real human cost for going on vacation. Three weeks in America without health care means:

• 143,250 people will lose their health insurance coverage
• 53,507 people will file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills
• 1,265 people will die because they lack coverage

The House is so close to passing a health reform bill - they should not go on vacation now when thousands are losing their health care or worse every day.

Those shocking (to me, at least) statistics are also part of the "hidden costs" of our current system.