[extropy-chat] Health data

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On 6/16/06, Damien Sullivan <phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:

> I'd say it's not the cost but the amount spent.  Anyway, I'd imagined
> spending would make a big difference for infant mortality: who gets the
> vaccines and the care when sick?  With the US having lots of people,
> black and white, below the threshold of decent infant care.  But I don't
> know, maybe nutrition and residential pollution make the difference.
>
> And it might be argued that "gross deficiency" is exactly what the US
> has.  Not if you can afford it, no, and not if you have some problem
> which the ER can actually treat, but if you have a chronic condition
> whose drugs you can't afford, or if you put off going to the doctor
> because you can't afford visits and therefore miss out on cheaper
> preventive or early treatment care, you'll die sooner.

### Damien, at appears that you are not familiar with the actual
patterns of availability of medical care to the indigent in the US.
This country is spending more on its poor per capita than EU countries
spend on their regular citizens (which I think is wrong, but this is
another issue). The poor in the US have a better access to medicine
than regular Germans have.

The Daily Kos is not a good source of information on medicine, I might add.

Rafal