The U.S. compared to other countries

With so many people wanting to repeal the new health care bill let's take a look back at our old health care system to remind people why change was needed.
The United States did not rank much higher than some third world countries in terms of equity of service to all citizens. The World Health Organization rated the national health care systems of 191 countries in terms of "fairness," and the United States was ranked fifty-forth. That put America slightly ahead of Chad and Rwanda but just behind Bangladesh and the Maldives. Small businesses were struggling to provide health insurance for their employees. Almost two million fewer Americans received health insurance through their employers earlier this year than compared to 2001. T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter, stated in his book, "The Healing of America," that, "All the developed countries I looked at provide health coverage for every resident, old or young, rich or poor. This is the underlying moral principle of the health care system in every rich country-every one, that is, except the United States."
The Institute of Medicine estimated that more than 22,000 Americans were left to die each year because they cannot afford medical care. One-sixth of America's economy was spent on health care. Health care spending was $2.3 trillion in 2007 and was predicted to be about $4.2 trillion if we did not reform our health care system.
In the U.S., health insurers would spend around 20 percent of all premium income on administrative expenses. The French only spend about 5 percent of premiums on administrative costs. T.R. Reid asked the health ministries of all the developed countries he visited how many citizens went bankrupt in the past year (2008) because of medical bills, and the officials were astonished that he would even ask that question. No one went bankrupt because of medical bills in Britain, France, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, or Switzerland. It has been a completely different story in America. Seven-hundred thousand U.S. citizens went bankrupt due to medical bills in 2008.
A 2008 report by the Commonwealth Fund ranked nineteen wealthy nations in curing people who could be cured with decent care, and the U.S. was ranked nineteenth. The number of people who die from curable illnesses was almost twice as high in the U.S. compared to countries such as France, Japan, and Spain.
With all of that evidence, it is safe to say that reform was needed. The new bill will work because everyone will be participating in getting health insurance so the insurance companies will be competing to insure the most people. Prices will be lower because we will not be spending as much on emergency room treatments for the uninsured and people won't go bankrupt from medical bills because insurance companies will be required to cover more costs.