This story comes from a story and video I’ve just seen on one of my favorite blogs. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Senator John Edwards, a woman currently battling cancer really does a great job of debunking some of the myths surrounding the health care debate which have heated up quite a bit this week. Some national Republicans are calling this Waterloo for Obama. Health care critics are always citing phony number and I’ve had a sense of that for sometime, but the statistics shown in this post are remarkable.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg1VSH1_eLo]
A few years ago I was speaking to a technical support representative of a major printer manufacturer. In our conversation I noted that he sounded very Canadian, which in fact he was. I quizzed him about why his company had located their technical support in Alberta. Why Alberta? Why put your technical support people in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. Why such a remote location? His answer was that the company wanted highly skilled English speakers but could not afford health care costs so they moved their operation to Canada. The light came on for me that day. As a business owner and an American citizen who wants to see my country grow and prosper I began to realize the imperative of health care reform. Small business will not be saddled with benefit costs which have been driving many out of the market place. Health care reform is therefore our patriotic duty. Taking advantage of people in the fashion that health care conglomerates have is very un-American not to mention un-holy.
Sadly the American health care system is deadlier than our neighbors to the north. Take a look at some numbers that come from this link.
Circulatory disease deaths per 100,000:
- Canada: 219
- United States: 265
Child maltreatment deaths per 100,000:
- Canada: 0.7
- United States: 2.2
Digestive disease deaths per 100,000:
- Canada: 17.4
- United States: 20.5
Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births
- Canada: 5.08
- United States: 6.3
Intestinal diseases death rate
- Canada: 0.3%
- United States: 7.3%
Proability of not reaching age 60:
- Canada: 9.5%
- United States: 12.8%
Respiratory disease child death rate per 100,000
- Canada: 0.62
- United States: 40.43
Heart disease deaths per 100,000:
- Canada: 94.9
- United States: 106.5
HIV deaths per million people:
- Canada: 47.423
- United States: 48.