More Scary Healthcare Stats

As the affordability of healthcare spins away from most Americans the statistics surrounding the healthcare industry paint a couple of pictures; one of a populace that increasingly requires healthcare, the other of institutionalized care designed to generate immense profits while impoverishing the people that come in to the system.

Here are some stats that paint some scary pictures:  

• The $2.4 trillion Americans spent on health care in 2008 is almost as much as what we spent on food, clothing, and national defense combined.
• Americans spent over one trillion more on health care than the profit earned by every corporation in America
• 41% of U.S. adults struggle with payments on medical bills and many are hounded by collection agencies
• American children are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than kids in Europe
• 25% of Americans throw away written prescriptions because they can't afford to fill them
• 25% of children in America have untreated tooth decay or cavities
• Doctors do $210 billion per year on procedures based on fear of liability, not patient need
• Americans are three times as likely to have diabetes than the British
• Over 25% of people living in Texas don't have access to affordable health care. Across the border, 100% of Mexicans do
• Greece has twice as many doctors per capita as America
• Americans pay 50% more for prescription drugs than in other industrialized countries
• Puerto Rico residents have a longer life expectancy than Americans
• If the American health care system were its own country, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world.
• Medical errors kill 195,000 people per year America's hospitals
• Having full time employment no longer guarantees health insurance. 45% of uninsured Americans actually have a full time job
• At 11% of the population, American women take more prescription drugs to combat depression than any country in the world
• America's infant mortality rate is 87% higher than France's
• Remote Area Medical, or RAM, was originally set up to go into third world countries to supply health care to the needy. The organization is now doing 60% of its work in the U.S

As the quality of healthcare in the US worsens, prices continue to skyrocket while Americans bear the burden of unaffordable healthcare. At same time, the for-profit industries are bringing in profits at record levels. What is going on here?