The Shame of US Health Care Dysfunction: Hookworm Returns to Alabama

ConclusionsAs we have noted endlessly, the US spends more per capita on health care than any other developed country.  US politicians used to make the claim that the country has the best health care system in the world, often to ward off any attempts at true health care reform.  However, US rankings on various measures - some of which may be disputed - of health care processes and outcomes have been decidedly mediocre.  (See for example the latest Commonwealth Fund studyhere.)The new study of hookworm prevalence was not based on a big, systematic, or geographically diverse sample.  However it is striking, and dismaying that a disease once thought to be eradicated is again alive and well in the poorer parts of a very rich country. Note that while the eradication of hookworm was partially attributed to the energizing of public health in the south, currently public health officials seem to think their job is to arrest poor people who cannot afford adequate sanitation.  The government does not seem to think it has a responsibility to assure working sewers or other forms of basic sanitation.  There also seems to be a governmental abandonment of public health focused on reaching individuals who might most be at risk of disease.Meanwhile, the country, as we have said before, has seen the diversion of tremendous amounts of health care and public health dollarsinto the pockets of health care managers, their cronies, health care management and adminis...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: government health care foundations public health Source Type: blogs