Albania and too much medicine

Panda Bear: “Ah, Albania! Tarnished Jewel of the Balkans! Despite no medical care to speak of you live as long as we do and even give the perfidious French a run for their money. What does that say about how we spend money? . . . But I’d like to humbly put forth the notion that most of the money spent on medical care in the United States and Europe is spent on the margins, which is not to say that people don’t want it and don’t demand it, but only that it is spent in large amounts with very little to show for it.”

Comments

Anonymous
An all time great entry for Panda Bear. The guy needs to write a book he has too much of a gift not to.
Anonymous
I drove to and toured Andorra 2 years ago, an obscure Pyrenees Mountain ministate. Andorra has the highest human life expectancy on Earth, on average of 83.52 years according to the US Census Bureau (2007 est).
It is ethnically heterogeneous (the Andorrans are a minority in their own country), so the lame typical US excuse doesn’t fly. They smoke tobacco (which they also grow as a cash crop), but in declining amounts. The health care system is unremarkable but competent. The winters are long and hard up in the Pyrenees.
Longevity etiology? I dunno, but they are all skinny, they walk everywhere in their mountainous homeland, the food is freshly prepared and delicious, there is no Type II crappy American diet poisoning (oops, I meant diabetes), and they laugh a lot.
Ed Sodaro MD
The two weeks on a trolley team
You can talk about America and Albania as examples of healthcare spending not reflecting quality of life/life expectancy. Fair enough, but these are EXCEPTIONS. I think part of the reason that america doesn’t see such a return on theior healthcare investment is that they don’t have very equitable distribution of healthcare resources.
Dr. Thunder
http://www.twoweeksonatrolley.blogspot.com
DDx:dx
The reason Albania can be healthy on a dime and the US can’t on a dollar, is that you guys think we(Heath care/ medical industrial complex/ physicians) are selling HEALTH and we are not. We sell services, we sell procedures, we sell drugs, but there has never been a focus on Public Health in American healthcare…It’s all about the individual, Cowboy.
So our bill for “health care” keeps growing it’s % of GDP and we get fatter and cancer and heart disease persist….It is a “work project” with more people employed in healthcare, hospitals the main employer in many towns, more and more levels of technichians and certifications. And no more HEALTH.
And right wing Panda is just discovering the inconsistency in what we do …
Dr. Sam
Panda nails it.
Our health-care system is not going to be fixed by more government intervention, spending, and bureaucracy.
It can only be fixed by examination with the sort of common sense he demonstrates in that post.
Since such common sense is not something I expect out of the mainstream press, the average voter, or most politicians, I can only surmise that our health-care system will not be fixed.
It will only get worse until it totally implodes on itself.
At that point, we’d all be better off in Albania.
Panda Bear
Dude, there’s nothing right or left-wing about it (or shouldn’t be), the chief complaint of the medical system is how much it costs. I’m suggesting a few areas where we are spending money on the margins, areas where money could be saved just be some tinkering with legislation and would have no impact on the health of 99 percent of Americans.
I’m also pointing out, in case you missed it, the ridiculousness of using life expectancy as an indicator or the quality of a health care system. While it may be true, for example, that a heart cath doesn’t prolong life, I’d much rather be able to get one for relief of debilitatig anginal pain than to just live with it as they do in Albania. The fact that many of our patient who get them continue to smoke, over-eat, and otherwise abuse themselves is more an indictment of human nature than our health care system.
Anonymous
How does that old story go……the boy that throws the starfish back in to the ocean. Someone tells the boy there’s so many starfish, throwing one back does not matter. The boy says “it matters to that starfish I threw back”.
Healthcare does not do much to a population, it does lots to the individual. The Albanians as a population may well live longer than Americans, and the reason is likely to be genetic. Bring the same Albanian to the USA, the Albanian would likely live longer than the typical American.
You see that in ethnic enclaves, where the Japanese-Americans have lifespans similar to native Japanese, same with the Italians, blacks, etc.
Where healthcare matters is when you have a certain disease, where is it more successfully treated? I don’t think many people would choose Albania over the USA for cancer care or cardiac surgery.
Anonymous
Move the Albanian to America and he will likely die younger. He will quit walking and start eating fast food
Anonymous
I second that. I’m a USC and I lived in Albania for a Year. I lost 60lbs. and lowered my Blood pressuer. Now that I’m back in the States i’ev gained 20lbs. and I’m fitting to get it off. I went back to Albania to visit and i lost 10lbs.
If an Albanian came to the States they would gain weight and are more then likely die young.

Albania and too much medicine

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