Three Myths about Health Care Reform in the US

It is sometimes claimed that the US has the worst health care system in the industrialized world. Statistics showing how unhealthy Americans are, such as rates of heart disease, diabetes, and low birth weights, are provided to support this view. Correlation does not imply causation, however.

Myth #1: the United States has the worst health care system.

Americans are indeed unhealthy, but this is due to poor lifestyle choices rather than a poor health care system. Americans eat too much, eat unhealthy food, exercise too little, and (until recently) smoke too much. As Michael Pollan points out, three quarters of US health care spending goes toward “preventable chronic diseases” linked to diet and smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under the circumstances, therefore, the US health care system is quite good at keeping Americans alive even as they damage their bodies through poor lifestyle choices. The real problems with health care are important to keep in mind when debating health care reform. These problems are the rising costs and the large number of uninsured.

Myth #2: European nations have “socialized medicine” and the United States does not.

Whether a nation has “socialized medicine” or not depends on what one means by socialized. If it means that a nation’s health care system is paid for and run by the government, then only one European nation has socialized medicine—England. If, on the other hand, socialized medicine means that health care is highly regulated by the government, then indeed, every European nation has socialized medicine, but so does the United States.

There are a wide variety of health care systems in the industrialized world, explains T. R. Reid. They vary in how much health care is provided by the government, and how much is regulated by the government. In Germany, for instance, all health care is provided by private insurers. One may argue, therefore, that German health care is less socialized than the United States because the US has government-run hospitals (VA hospitals) and government-run health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid). Health care in European nations is not homogenous and the differences in health care systems between European nations and the US is not vast.

Myth #3: Republicans have not presented any alternatives to the Democrats’ plans.

President Obama and the Democrats in Congress frequently claim that Republicans have offered no alternatives to reform health care. Republicans are “the party of no,” Democrats argue; they simply oppose Democratic reform plans, but offer no plan of their own to fix problems associated with health care. This, also, is a myth.

Republicans have presented many proposals to reform health care. John McCain, for instance, offered a plan when he was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Some aspects of that plan have even been embraced by President Obama. Some of the Republican reform proposals include abolishing the tax benefit for employer provided health insurance and replacing it with a tax rebate for all, expanding health savings accounts, and allowing the purchase of health insurance across state lines.

If political leaders are to enact health care reforms this year, they would do well to avoid perpetuating myths about health care reform, and focus on bipartisan, widely supported, solutions.

References:

Pollan, Michael, “Big Food vs. Big Insurance,” New York Times, September 9, 2009.

Reid, T. R., “5 Myths About Health Care Around the World,” Washington Post, August 23, 2009.