World Health Organization wants Bigger Governments - Granite Grok

World Health Organization wants Bigger Governments

It should come as no surprise to anyone that politicians and bureaucrats want to increase their power and the amount of money they can control.  These are the true purposes of the World Health Organization’s ranking of nation’s healthcare systems.

When people hear complaints about the US healthcare system based on the World Health Organization (WHO) rankings, they should understand that the WHO rankings are not what most Americans assume.

The WHO rankings are based on criteria which is intended to justify big-government controlled, essentially socialist, healthcare so that politicians and bureaucrats can justify increasing taxes, allocating healthcare, and controlling citizens’ everyday lives.

The complainers don’t mention it, but in the one WHO criteria that most Americans would consider most relevant, “Responsiveness”, the US healthcare system is rated best.  Responsiveness measures how quickly the healthcare system responds to your problem, i.e., how quickly you can see a doctor and get treated.

Even using the WHO’s criteria which gives greater weight to factors other than “responsiveness”, the US ranks 15th.  But because the US spends the most on healthcare, the WHO drops our ranking to 37th.
The US healthcare system is unjustifiably downgraded because most insurance policies require co-pays and/or deductibles and because of the total cost of our healthcare system.  But with 85-90% of Americans covered by insurance and with hospitals required to treat people regardless of ability to pay, American healthcare is available to all and affordable by most.
The WHO unjustifiably downgrades the US healthcare system for things that our healthcare system doesn’t control, e.g., murders, accidental deaths, and the results of perhaps the most unhealthy lifestyle in the developed world.  Use of such criteria is only relevant for justifying increased government controls over our lives…so we live “healthier”.
Do we really want bureaucrats controlling what we must and cannot eat or drink, requiring specific amounts of exercise, and preventing behaviors the bureaucrats consider risky (perhaps skiing, motorcycling, fireworks, hunting, driving over 55, etc.)?  Think of the US’s experiment with “Prohibition” and apply that to every aspect of your life that a bureaucrat decides is relevant to your “health”.
The WHO ranks Columbia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia above the US, but the world’s rich come here, not there.  Canada is ranked above the US, but many Canadians come here for healthcare, often so they can get treatment before they die.
Because the WHO’s criteria has been hotly disputed, the WHO has not rated national healthcare systems since 2000.  Nothing should be based on the WHO’s healthcare rankings.
Americans who cite the WHO report to denigrate our healthcare system and justify government control of healthcare such as Obamacare are either ignorant of the WHO’s criteria and objective or supporters of socialized medicine, increased taxes, and the loss of personal freedom that results from increased government controls of how we live our lives.

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