U.S. healthcare costs more than Cuba's and may not have an edge in helping people live longer, but Cubans often lack prescription drugs and over-the-counter remedies.
The average Cuban lives slightly longer than the average American, but the American's healthcare costs $5,711 a year while the Cuban's costs $251.
Those are the figures of the World Health Organization. Some experts question the accuracy of the Cuban numbers, but no one doubts the underlying revelation: There is little relationship between the cost of your healthcare and how long you'll live.
''Medical care is responsible for only a small portion of the variation in life expectancy,'' says Gerard Anderson, a Johns Hopkins professor specializing in health policy. ``Behavioral factors such as diet and exercise are much more important. The U.S., which spends much more than any other industrialized country on healthcare, is getting little value for much of the spending.''
Read the whole story on MiamiHerald.com
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Friday, November 24, 2006
AIDS - Good in parts
The latest UN report suggests hope about AIDS is not entirely misplaced
“YOU can do it if you try.” That is the message which UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation, the United Nations bodies charged with combating HIV, are pushing in their latest report on the state of the epidemic.
The report itself is a work of dry epidemiology. It gives a snapshot of the current state of knowledge about how and why the virus is spreading or regressing in various parts of the world. It looks at transmission paths. It looks at the different risks attaching to a number of vulnerable groups (heterosexual youngsters, homosexual men, prostitutes and recreational drug users who inject their pleasures rather than smoking or swallowing them). And it looks at whether particular public-health measures are effective or not.
But, dry and scientific though it may be, the report is also a platform for propaganda. December 1st is World AIDS Day, and the gurus of global health would like you to notice certain parts of the report and be appropriately concerned. Crafting just the right level of concern requires a delicacy of touch. Too optimistic, and the world might dust its hands together and say “job done”. Too pessimistic and it might simply turn its back on a problem it sees as insoluble. This year, the mixture seems spot on.
Read the whole story on the Economist.com
“YOU can do it if you try.” That is the message which UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation, the United Nations bodies charged with combating HIV, are pushing in their latest report on the state of the epidemic.
The report itself is a work of dry epidemiology. It gives a snapshot of the current state of knowledge about how and why the virus is spreading or regressing in various parts of the world. It looks at transmission paths. It looks at the different risks attaching to a number of vulnerable groups (heterosexual youngsters, homosexual men, prostitutes and recreational drug users who inject their pleasures rather than smoking or swallowing them). And it looks at whether particular public-health measures are effective or not.
But, dry and scientific though it may be, the report is also a platform for propaganda. December 1st is World AIDS Day, and the gurus of global health would like you to notice certain parts of the report and be appropriately concerned. Crafting just the right level of concern requires a delicacy of touch. Too optimistic, and the world might dust its hands together and say “job done”. Too pessimistic and it might simply turn its back on a problem it sees as insoluble. This year, the mixture seems spot on.
Read the whole story on the Economist.com
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