Well, WHO gives a report?!

Perspectives on the World Health Report.
Woohoo.

Working in the ER (but I'm sure it doesn't really matter) I hear a lot of disparaging remarks toward "Obamacare" and "Socialized Medicine." Usually it's from some WASP with a postive Cheetos' sign requesting pain medication because their stomach hurts after a night of binge-drinking.

Later when they're demanding to know how they're supposed to fill their prescriptions I smile sweetly and say, "How were you planning on filling your prescriptions?"

I find myself incredulous that we here in 'Merica are the only industrialized nation that doesn't offer a national health care plan. We're also pretty dang bad at taking care of people.
In 2000 we ranked 24th compared to similar countries.
Dang.

Sara Bennett at Johns Hopkins, and left the WHO in 2008, does a good job of pointing out the facts and gaps in the World Report.
Essentially, the WHO found that Health Care sucks. It sucks less if it's government run.
What I mean by sucks is poor care and high prices.
Similar to how I feel about McDonald's right now. (Seriously, you want to charge me $6 for that?)
But, as is pointed out, there's no magic bullet. It will take time.
Also, read the second blue box. It contains a lot of good questions Dr. Bennett doesn't think the WHO did a good job of addressing.

I find it painful that 20-40% of health care resources are wasted. That's a large percentage.
Here's another ouch from Wikipedia

Spending on administration in Finland is 2.1% of all health care costs, and in the UK the figure is 3.3% whereas the U.S spends 7.3% of all expenditures on administration.

I'm not a fan of administration. How is it that the UK administrators can get by with half of what US administration costs. So much damn red tape.

Sigh. I used to hold my breath in college when I didn't have great health care that, somehow, within those years I would find out that I had somekind of disorder, or disease or disability and would then spend the rest of my life denied coverage for something that genetically I couldn't help.

If we were all living in the middle of nowhere this would be ok. But no. We are an advanced sort of animal. One that can form societies to aid and assist each other for the benefit of all. Atom, Molecule, Cell, Tissue, Organ, Organ system, Organism, Society.

That's what I have to say about that.